System in endless bios update loop and cannot get out

[carndogmcc]

Yesterday I went to start up my laptop and it started in "airplane mode" - fan on super high and loud.  After several minutes, I held power button down to force shutdown and then restarted.  Same thing.  Decided to let it go.  After maybe 4-6 minutes, a white screen appears saying "Final step of BIOS update in progress".  Never got any warning that there was a BIOS update going on.  Then that goes away and HP logo appears like it's starting up, but shuts down.  Then restarts and goes through the same loop.  Unending.

I've tried hitting the F10 key when starting up to get the BIOS setup screen but never get it.  Tried the Windows button and B key (also tried V key) at the same time while starting up.  No reaction there either.  I tried creating a USB recovery key on thumb drive from another computer but not having success creating it with the loaner laptop I've got.  Any other thoughts or ideas?

This is a work laptop.  Local support has tried to resolve with no luck.  Their next step is re-imaging this laptop, meaning I lose whatever is on it.  I have almost everything backed up to OneDrive but my recent work in a Virtual Machine.  Trying to get it functional to at least copy that over.  There was no warning to this.  No issues when shutting down the previous evening.  

[DGR001]

This post reflects my current position exactly. Was the issue ever resolved?

TIA.