Starts to boot - then black screen with cursor

This is my friends computer.

Originally (and suddenly) he couldn't get it to boot properly.

• Got the "tone" and the white apple screen . . .
• Then a blue screen . . .
• Then black . . .
• Then blue again . . .
• Then back to black but can see the cursor

Sometimes he could get it to boot but after trying to do anything it would go all "funky"

Example:

• File windows wouldn't navigate properly - any action like resizing or scrolling caused ghosts on the screen
• The cursor has a little clear stripe running vertically through the middle of it . . .
• There's also a something like a box of vertical black line dots flickering around the cursor many times

Also it would get the gray "need to restart computer" screen in 4 languages when ever trying to open a program or even sometimes without doing anything

• * * *

After trying a bunch of stuff like running Disk Utility and Applejack I was able to stabilize it enough to where when opening with "Safe Boot" he could back up the files he needs to save . . .

I did a soft re-install of the operating system . . .

Still didn't boot properly unless in "Safe Boot" . . .

I've since done a clean install including wiping the hard drive . . .

Still doesn't boot properly without Safe Boot and the cursor is still messed up . . .

Does anybody have any ideas for me?

I needed to boot from "Installation CD" for Disk Utilities as well as both the re-install and the clean install . . .

Still had and have the graphics problems

After the erase and clean install I'm sure it's some kind of hardware problem . . .

The only thing that really changed after all the things I did before is that once I can log in I don't get the gray screen telling me to restart