Macbook pro screen stuck on grey screen while system working

Hi everyone. I would like to share with you a very annoying problem I am experiencing with my macbook pro since yesterday.
It's a 15" Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 ghz (late 2007).
I should start by saying that my macbook was already having, since months, a problem at the display which was kind of flickering at any movement. The Apple Center told me I should have replaced the entire display because the problem is due to a cable which is located inside the display itself and Apple does not provide this kind of repairs. Anyway I decided not to replace the display (which is a very costly operation) since I was very often using an external monitor without any problem.
Yesterday while I was working (without external monitor), the display suddenly freezed with a kind of blinking light. I forced the shut down by holding the START/STOP button for some seconds. Since then I tried to start again many times: I hear the standard startup chime, the computer normally loads for a couple of minutes until the screen get freezed on the grey screen with apple logo, I suppose right in the moment the desktop should appear.
The strange thing is that I discovered, after several attempts, that while the screen is freezed, the computer is normally working! It is regularly connected to the internet through my router and, even if I cannot see anything but the grey screen, when I press the STOP button and then the "ENTER" key it normally goes off.
I tried to connect it to an external monitor as I usually do, but this time it did not work at all. I also checked the hard disk by starting in target mode and found no problem in it. The hard disk and the system on it are OK.
I found on the web that late 2007 macbooks have a well known problem with geoforce video card and that apple is even providing free of charge repairement.
So I thought it might be my case, brought the macbook to the Apple Authorized Service Provider and asked about it. The people there told me that the Apple policy on the replacement is very strict and that classic symptom of geoforce failure is a black screen and not the grey screen with apple logo. They said they will check, but gave me very little hope. They told me that a logic board replacement is worth at least 600 euros which I think is too much for a 2007 computer.
Did anyone have this kind of problem? Do you find more likely to be a problem due to the video card or something different?
Thank you for any help.
Antonio

Holding the shutdown buttom down for several seconds solved the problem. When I booted my mac again, it continued with the update. However, do you guys think my mac have taken damage of this?

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Hello c:
Welcome to Apple discussions.
Your post was hard to follow, but, for openers, very few people should EVER use terminal commands. As you have found out, you can screw a system up badly.
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