IMac travails - gray screen

Thanks BDAQUA,
on monday I loaded the latest 10.4.11 security update.
Seemed to work just fine.
restarted, and it took a long long time to restart, apple symbol,
never completed. powered down after an hour,
powered up, and slid the tiger install disk 1 in the slot
gray screen after the startup sound. no apple symbol
rebooted and held the D key
same deal, 30 minutes gray screen.
powered down, reseated memory.
same cycle.
let it sit 36 hours
powered down, removed memory, replaced with known good sticks.
powered up, with keyboard/mouse attached, got the start up
tones, no apple, no beeps, no blinking power led. just gray
screen
power cycled, held the S key right after the tone, same deal, 15 minutes.
same deal with the S key held while powering up, and holding key for 10 minutes
power cycled, held d key, same deal, 15 minutes
power cycled, just letting it sit, 30 minutes so far.
I hear the drive start, fans run, but no other indications.
any suggestions appreciated.
thanks
bob

Hi Bob,
held the S key right after the tone
Did you hold the Command key plus the s key?
Reboot holding down CMD+s, (+s), then when the DOS like prompt shows, type in...
/sbin/fsck -fy
(space between fsck and -fy important)
3. Press Return. fsck will go through five "phases" and then return information about your disk's use and fragmentation. Once it finishes, it'll display this message if no issue is found: 
The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK  
If fsck found issues and has altered, repaired, or fixed anything, it will display this message: 
*** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED ***   Important: If this message appears, repeat the fsck command you typed in step 2 until fsck tells you that your volume appears to be OK (first-pass repairs may uncover additional issues, so this is a normal thing to do).
The d key may or may not work, try the Option Key, does anything show up?

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my system:
new (month old) 24" intel imac, 2.8 ghz, 4 gb ram.
running: leopard (upgraded from tiger, which was pre-installed at purchase), installed 10.5.1 update right before this huge problem occurred.
install discs on-hand: two-disc tiget set, single leopard upgrade disc.
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i wanted to install windows using bootcamp on a 50 gb partition.
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booting from a CD, holding down the C or D keys: no response (in fact, i have to restart the computer holding down the mouse button to be able to eject the CD)
booting with option key held down: gray screen
booting with option key held down with external bootable firewire drive attached: the firewire drive appears as a boot icon, and i can click on it within a five second window, but then the screen freezes after that time period, and nothing changes
booting into target mode while attached to another mac: gray screen (no firewire icon, and drive never shows up on other mac)
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Single user mode: gray screen
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is there anything else left to try before taking it to apple?
any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Casey Burns Illustration and Design
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I'd call Apple support at this point. You'll need
to put this issue on the record.
Call U.S. iPod and Mac technical support: 1-800-APL-CARE (1-800-275-2273)
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Slim
Message was edited by: slimpikkunz

IMac travails - gray screen

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