Stuck on grey screen following updates

I am trying to fix my wife's mac book that is stuck on the gray screen following numerous updates. I am not exactly sure which OS she has but it is at least 10.4.1. I cannot boot in safe mode. I used the disk utility from the install disk and repaired the disk (it didn't find any problems) and repaired permissions which it seemed to do a bunch of things, then tried rebooting in safe mode and am back to the gray screen.
I have read on the forums about possible solutions using archives(?) but we were in the middle of backing up the computer when my wife accidentally restarted and so her files are not backed up. She only has about 7 GB of the 60 GB hard drive free (although she does have an external hard drive with plenty of free space available). We don't have another mac to try some of the other solutions suggested. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Sam

Hi lizzip, and a warm welcome to the forums!
On the 10.4.6 on the DVD & 10.4.11 on the Mac, it is normal, and if you do end up Archive & Installing, you can o directly to 10.4.11 with this...
The combo update for Intel-based Macs...
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx10411comboupdateintel.html
Of course 7GB is getting dangerously low to attempt that.
Could be many things, we should start with this...
"Try Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk."
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Then try a Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at bootup), run Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, then highlight your drive, click on Repair Permissions, reboot when it completes.
The usual reason why updates fail or mess things up, is if Permissions are not fixed before & after every update, with a reboot... you may get a partial update when the installer finds it doesn't have Permissions to change one obscure little part of the OS, leaving you with a mix of OS versions.
Some people get away without Repairing Permissions for years, some for only days.
If Permissions are wrong before applying an update, you could get mixed OS versions, if Directory is the slightest messed up, who knows!
If many Permission are repaired, or any Directory errors are found, you may need to re-apply some the latest/biggest updates.
May even need to do an Archive and Install if you have room on the HD, but saves all your files and gives a new OS...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120

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    Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
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    If the startup process stops at a blank gray screen with no Apple logo or spinning "daisy wheel," then the startup volume may be full. If you had previously seen warnings of low disk space, this is almost certainly the case. You might be able to start up in safe mode even though you can't start up normally. Otherwise, start up from an external drive, or else use the technique in Step 1b, 1c, or 1d to mount the internal drive and delete some files. According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation.
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    Step 4
    If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
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    Safe mode is much slower to start and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
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    Step 10
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    Step 11
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