@xtali that "gray screen of death"is a new one for me. Anyhow, connect an external monitor and see if that displays properly. If so you know your GPU etc. is okay. You also want to re-install the proper drivers for your hardware. "background of my account before it immediately turns grey again" this could be a driver issues. To verify this, change your computer’s BIOS to load from either optical drive or USB. Download a copy of any version Linux Live. Copy it to a USB/ CD and try to reboot your computer with that. If your display stays on properly you will know it is software related. If it does not it is your LCD. The grey screen simply means that your backlight is on but your screen does not receive video signal.