Stuck at splash screen, can't boot from USB or DVD

Symptoms:

Windows infinite circle of dots when booting. (PC was a fresh install months ago, and was working fine until returning from vacation).

Hard drive light goes solid during attempts to boot (during splash screen).

Diagnostic repair begins to load, but never completes (Using shift Key to boot or 3 hard resets), again, solid HD light

Repairs attempted:

Downloaded Windows Creation tool to both USB and DVD. Attempts to boot (splash circles), then black screen, and solid HD light.

Reset Bios to defaults
Disabled fast boot in Bios
Changed boot order to 1) USB Flash drive 2) DVD 3) System hard drive

Specs: (This is not my PC, so this is what I know)

i3 6100 using on board graphics
16 gig ram
MSI MB
Samsung SSD
UEFI

At this point I can not even reformat, as the USB and dvd boot, but do not load. I am not familiar with SSD failure symptoms, but the fact that I am able to get to the splash screen would indicate that it is working.

At a loss as what to try next.

Summary:

Can't load windows past the splash
Can't boot from USB or DVD past the splash
All attempts lead to a solid light on the SSD


I

Do you know why the HD drive light would go solid?

The case light indicating HD activity

AddRAM said:

Test it with another drive, any will do.

"Was working fine until returning from vacation" ????? What does this mean ???

Not your PC, who`s is it ? Where is the owner ?

Troubleshoot the problem 1 step at a time, Ahh the hard drive light stays on, let me see what happens with another hard drive etc.

Create a Linux OS flash drive, does the PC boot and run fine from it etc.

Your 1st mistake was making a bunch of changes to the bios, setting it to defaults is fine, but setting a usb to boot 1st is not a good idea because if that usb device is left in there it will boot from it over and over again.

Better to just use the one time boot menu key to bring up the boot menu.

The PC was powered off for 3 weeks. The bios changes were done sequentially.

Was able to boot in safe mode after creating a USB with RUFUS. Disabled all services on startup except MS. Was able to restart normally. Currently updating Windows and will see what happens upon reboot.

The update is ver 1607

After the update, the PC seems to be booting normally. Thx to AddRam for the RUFUS advice. Nothing is more frustrating than not posting or being able to boot, and his advice got us past that.