Tally-ho~
My phone starts to boot but freezes at "HTC" white screen. When I try to turn the phone off it comes right back on and freezes up again. I have tried hooking up to my computer to get the pictures to download. But HTC syn does not detect the device. My problem may require a hard boot...
Interesting approach. Why might that work? Having the same problem (screen frozen on "htc one" logo) and need to backup pictures, if possible, before getting too aggressive.
~jake