Purchased my computer just before new ones came out in Oct. It runs slow and shows Gray screen sometimes when I open it. Anyone else having this problem?

Question

I have a new but 2010 model. It operates very slow and has gray screen occassionaly. One store said it's "safe sleep", the other graphic board. Is anyone else having this problem with computer only 4 mos. old?

Answer 1

Your problems may be caused by software or hardware, including the gray screen and the slowness.  The intermittent gray screen is a puzzler and probably is hardware.   TUSL2C’s diagnosis may be right on the money.  A question is how to isolate it to HW or SW that so you can get good service? 
The obvious cheap and easy fix is to replace that cable but I don’t think you can do that  because it is under warranty.  There are other ways to isolate the problem that won’t void the warranty.
If the disk turns out to be healthy and it continues to boot to a gray screen then that will be a sign that internal hardware, other than the disk, is to blame.  Since they are blaming it on software we will be able to test it with a pristine OS X installation that has no 3rd-party software to blame.
> They are calling it "Safe Sleep Mode" and that happens if I don't use the machine within 4 hours.
The machine should go to sleep and wake up almost instantly every time without a gray screen.  If you can demonstrate the problem reliably by putting it to sleep and waking it up then that will be most useful.  We will show it failing on pristine OS X software without 3rd-party mods to prove it is an Apple problem.  Similarly if you can reliably show the gray screen from a power-on boot that will help.
My first question is do you have a current Time Machine (or other) backup?  If not you should create one before we get to steps that could stress the disk.  If it is a faulty cable or a faulty disk then the system could stop functioning at any time.  It is always prudent to maintain a current backup and especially important when the system is sick.  If you do not have a Time Machine (or other) backup then post back for instructions on how to create one.
In the mean time please download and run Etrecheck and post back the results.
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
This will indicate possible software compatibles and other details that may be helpful in a diagnosis.
Also run disk diagnostics with Disk Utility.  This will check if the disk and filesystem are healthy.
From the Finder, pull down on the Go menu to Utilities.  This will open the Applications > Utilities folder.
Then run Disk Utility.
Click on the upper left disk icon.
Does the S.M.A.R.T. status say “Verified”.
          If not the disk/SSD is unhealthy and needs to be replaced.
Click on the icon indented below, usually called “Macintosh HD”.
Verify Disk.
If it finishes with a green “OK” message then all is well with the disk.
If it shows errors in red then you may have found a problem.
Click on Repair Disk Permissions.
It will give lots of messages in black and white, which are OK.
If it gives any messages in red then there is an issue to address.
It will be useful to have some test that shows the slow speed that uses standard OS X applications such as Pages, Numbers, Presenter, iTunes, iMovie... or even just the Finder opening windows or starting applications.  We can then use that test when isolating the source of the slowness.
How many seconds does it take to boot from power-on to either the login screen or the Finder is up?  Please time that.  It is a good speed test.  If it is over a minute then something is wrong.
One way to isolate the issues will be to sandbox it using another disk to test what happens with different software on different hardware disks in different locations.  That will not void the warranty.
But before going there or proceeding further let’s look at the Etrecheck and Disk Utility results, ensure the system is backed up, and then try some other standard tests.