Stuck on gray screen on warm restarts
I just wanted to add a data point to the problem of getting stuck gray screens with warm restarts.
My Mac Mini 3,1 (early 2009) started arresting at the gray screen with the logo upon warm restarts. If I shut down entirely and waited for a while, or if I unplugged the mini for a few seconds, it would start up fine and work normally. I tried replacing the hard drive (it was due for a bigger one anyway) and installing Mt Lion from scratch; but that did not affect the problem one bit.
I took the Mini to the local Genius Bar, and when we couldn't reproduce the problem, I noticed we were using a VGA cable with an old monitor. My Mini was hooked up with a Monoprice mini DVI to DVI cable at home. When I got home, I swapped the Monoprice cable out and replaced it with an Apple mini DVI to DVI adaptor connected to a standard DVI cable, and my Mini runs like new. It also runs 10-15 degrees Celsius cooler. I postulate that the Monoprice cable was stressing the video chip and causing other problems.
I'm bummed because I was all set to get a new Mini or iMac.
I hope this helps someone out there.