Black screen with spinning wheel on startup

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 (bought in Dec 2007)
Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2.66 GHz
9gb of ram
2TB HD
I'm running 10.6.8.
My computer froze while in Safari and after shutting it down with the power button, I started it up again and I first get the apple logo with the gears and then the screen goes black with just the spinning beach ball.
I can boot in safe mode.
I've booted from a Snow Leopard disc and ran Disc Utilities and the HD was verified and "appears to be ok". (Also ran a repair permissions)
I've run the extended Hardware Test and everything is fine there too.
I've reset the PRAM/NVRAM.
I've unpluggest all extrernal drives and peripherals and still, the black screen on start up.
From what I can discern from some other posts, this might be a graphics card issue...? I still have the original
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT in my machine.
I've tried rebooting a dozen times and mostly I get the black screen, but a couple of times it's also been stuck on a gray screen.
The last few reboots have been black. Would really apprciate any feedback. Thank you.

Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
Reinstall OS X without erasing the drive
1. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Reinstall Snow Leopard
If the drive is OK then quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with reinstalling OS X. Note that the Snow Leopard installer will not erase your drive or disturb your files. After installing a fresh copy of OS X the installer will move your Home folder, third-party applications, support items, and network preferences into the newly installed system.
Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

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