PBase

I bought a Sony Cybershot DSC-W290 wich is driving me crazy...
In almost every picture there are white circles regardless of indoors/outdoors/flash/noflash, I had a 5 year old Casio earlier that never produced any of these white circles, before that I had a Canon that also produced them to often, got a new one on the warrancy and that one worked fine. Now after some years I have the same problem but with a different camera.
I have googled the problem but could not find any info about the problem, almost all info I got refered to dust, wich it cant be in my case since its on almost every picture.
I have uploaded two pics from new years eve in a gallery in my profile, they were taken outside in the dark, but the circles are clearly visible there, does anyone know whats the problem? Sensor error maybe?
I am thinking of returning this camera to the dealer, but the only catch is that I bought an ikelite underwater house from a different dealer, thats why I hesitate

Could you post one or two to let us know what exactly we are talking about?

he put a pair up here: http://www.pbase.com/kico/sony_dscw290 there area couple of comments following one of them...

i don't believe it is the problem of the sensor. It has to do more with your lens because as i can see it is a reflection of the flash from the railing and other white parts.
I believe those are just small spots of vapor attached to the outer part of the lens. It can be very small that you are not able to see it with the naked eye, but you know that the light will make everything possible to see.
If you compare the two photos you will see that the spots are not at the same place. Also i must add here that you are taking pictures during winter where the slightest change of humidity will be visible on the lens (example: keeping the camera inside your jacket).
Did you try cleaning the lens with special towels?