Gray Screen w/ Wheel...Tried Everything...

I am trying to repair a computer from work that was about to be tossed. It's an older Mac. I am not sure what version of OS X it is running as it doesn't go past the gray screen with the wheel. The first few times I turned it on, it went all the way to the alternating blue screens with the cursor appearing and not appearing.

I've tried resetting permissions in single user mode. I've tried rebooting from a USB (it never recognized it), I've tried rebooting from a CD that I have from my MacBook which is around the same age. It doesn't allow me to enter safe mode. I can only enter single user mode. I run fsck and by the second time it says the volume is ok. There is no recovery hd option either. Is there any hope for getting this computer back up and going?

Thanks