Spinning circles icon on boot (Win10)

[eco_bach]

Need some troubleshooting help!
I mistakenly enabled 3D Display mode in my Display Settings. Screen went immediately dark and was unable to disable this mode.
There was a Windows update queued so I did a hard reboot.
After booting on my screen all I see is a spinning circle icon (rotating circle made up of 5 smaller white dots).
Nothing happens. I am stuck and client work to do.
Any help appreciated!

 

[eco_bach]

OP
Tried unsuccessfully to boot into Safe mode ( F 8?)
I AM able to boot into BIOS F2.
Didn’t change anything, exited and saw the Windows blue icon for a few seconds, then the spinning circles…again!
Will try again to get into Safe mode. argh!
I assume 10 minutes is enough time to wait watching the spinning circle?
Any suggestions appreciated!

Post magically merged: Apr 23, 2025

OP After about 10 minutes the spinning circle icon disappears. And I get a 'no DP signal' on my monitor. WTF?

 

[eco_bach]

OP After about 10 minutes the spinning circle icon disappears. And I get a 'no DP signal' on my monitor. WTF?

Post magically merged: Apr 23, 2025

OP Just wondering if this is possibly a disk space issue. Perhaps Windows is attempting the update but running out of hard drive space and stuck in an endless loop?
I think I need to create bootable external media on a USB stick to further troubleshoot. Been several years since I attempted this. Can anyone share links with step by step instructions to do this?

 

[don256us]

You're doing the right things. F8 for safe mode.
Why are you thinking that it's a disk space issue?

I'm thinking that there is something else wrong.
What are your computer specs? That information may be helpful.

 

[EarthDog]

See if you can make a repair disk and boot to it and repair the install... something is borked.... and free space likely has nothing to do with it.

Sounds like it's format and reinstall time to me. You can be back up and rebuilding (if you don't have an image/backup) in 20 mins.