MBPro Retina Boot Issues

Booted up new MBPro for the first time and machine hung while trying to find the Time Machine disk from which I was migrating a prior system. That was a sign of bad things to come.

Migrated files and rebooted with no problems. Used Software Update to find and install the various updates available. One update, MacBook Pro (mid 2012) Software Update 10.7.4 reported message that it failed to download. Rebooted machine and it went into endless loop of Chime-Apple-Black Screen Chime-Apple-Blackscreen, etc.

Phone support suggested reset PMU, reset PRAM. No good. Boot into Recovery Disk and repair permisions and disk repair. Still didn't work. Suggested reinstall of Lion through recovery disk. Still didn't work.

On my own, then, I decided just to try safe boot. Boots fine. Downloaded all the software updates except the OS update mentioned above and installed. Downloaded the above-mentioned software update from Apple site and installed. Machine booted and worked perfectly.

Worked with it all day the next day without problem until late evening when in the middle of surfing a web page screen went completely blank and machine shut down spontaneously. Rebotted and got the same Chime-Apple-Black screen cycle as before. Could reboot into safe mode. Tried another reinstall of the system software update. System now boots.

I have genius bar appointment scheduled but wondering if anyone else has seen similar issues with any of the new machines.

I am suspecting a hardware problem.