R3-131T OS freezing, won't shut down

I purchased my R3-131T only a month ago. Until a few days ago when I began to use it more regularly and more heavily than before (still not doing much with it - multiple tabs in Firefox and Word open simultaneously), it began to work slower. I thought this was natural given its specs and accepted it. After returning to minimal use, however, it continued to work very slowly. Yesterday, start-up took an unusually long time (a couple minutes?) and it was unresponsive when I asked it to open Firefox. I waited and managed to open what I needed, but when I flipped it over to use in tablet mode, the screen went black. After a few moments, the display returned, but would not rotate initially. Again, after a few moments, it did so, but at this point Firefox became unresponsive. I closed the program and subsequently Windows became unresponsive (no programs open at this point, only background processes). I waited and was able to restart it, but over about ten minutes it cycled through Windows updates about three times (i.e. hit 100%, black screen, returned to update screen again, hit 100%, so forth). I was able to use it when it did start (although it was still slow), but upon the next start-up, it is almost non-functional.

Start-up is ridiculously slow (about 5 minutes). It takes about two minutes to "load" control panel. Upon asking it to enter any section of the control panel, Windows Explorer becomes unresponsive and I am asked if I would like to end the process. It does not resolve itself and I cannot (obviously) restart it via the Start menu. Upon pressing the power button, the screen goes blank but it will not shut down. I have forced shut down and tried multiple times to achieve the same results. I do not know how to amend this when my operating system is non-functional.

Additionally, when listening closely while it is "shutting down", it sounds as if it is misfiring (rookie way of describing the sound, I'm sure - as if it is preparing to do something and failing to do so, then trying again and so on).

Apologies if this is too much info. I'm not super knowledgable about computer errors and do not know what is relevant and what is not (although that is why I am here).