Complete freeze of PC when starting MSFS

[sabaJHB]

i7-4790, 16Gb RAM, 1TB drive, Radeon RX 570 GPU.
I have enjoyed many hours of almost trouble-free flying with this admittedly minimalistic configuration (at medium graphics). Now suddenly, even with an empty community folder, my whole PC just freezes up when the splash screen is almost fully loaded (bottom blue progress bar is at the end).
I mean it is properly frozen! No cursor, no alt-tab, no ctrl-alt-delet, Nada. Only way out is hard power down PC. My community folder is empty. I have twice re-installed the whole sim from MS Store/Xbox Game pass. Any ideas?

[TheSevenflyer]

This link may help:

Stuck in initialization loop after reinstall

In the past did you use the Google Map Addon? If you did did you remove it using it’s uninstaller? If not you will need to remove the Window’s host file: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc, remove host file, and restart pc If this does not apply, here is a link to the checklist for the issue: At the end of that list are links to four additional checklists.

[sabaJHB]

Thanks a lot. No, I never installed the Google maps add-on. I have now uninstalled MSFS and am doing a fresh re-install currently - again!