Hey, long pressing the Power Off option on the screen worked! It gave me the safe mode option. You are one smart Crow (referring to your avatar as a fellow MST3K fan). Unfortunately, safe mode still brought me into the dreaded "optimizing app 1 of 1". This seems to prove that it is not a third party app, downloaded app which is causing the problem for me, right? I was afraid I had missed one when I was clearing them out. Sounds like it's back to factory reset for me.
Also, plugging in the keyboard was a great idea. I had forgotten the tablet came with one. Not sure if that would get me into safe mode, since I don't know what the boot order would be in Android. Would the optional keyboard come too late in the process? Anyway, your other solution worked for safe mode.
I really appreciate your help. Thanks!
06-23-2020 12:21 PM