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I powered on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro this morning and it will not boot past the grey screen. It gets past the Apple logo and spinner and then just hangs at a solid grey screen. I tried booting from the recovery partition and a USB backup of Mountain Lion and both lead me to a solid royal blue screen. I've also tried resetting the PRAM and still get a grey screen. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

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Can you confirm that you're for-sure booting to the USB? The best way to do this is to hold Option at boot and select it from the list. – zwerdlds Feb 11 at 17:46
Yes, below the USB icon it says Mac OS X. If I pull out the USB stick and place it another USB slot then the same icon and text appears. – wwwuser Feb 11 at 17:55
When I select the USB option to boot from my screen goes to the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinner for a short time then to the solid royal blue screen. After at the blue screen for a bit, I can hear the fan getting louder, but nothing happens. – wwwuser Feb 11 at 17:59
Is there any messages that appear on the lower-left corner of the display? If there is, may want to snap a photo and update your question. – Global nomad Feb 11 at 18:19
There are no messages. Just a solid grey or blue screen depending on how I boot up. – wwwuser Feb 11 at 18:23
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