After many years the Samsung TV decided it's time to go into a boot loop.
With some googl'ing the following remote combinations were found:
INFO -MENU - MUTE - POWER ON RC
This combination bring up the manufacturers menu where the TV can perform a factory reset.
And for a firmware upgrade : MUTE 2 5 8 EXIT
Unfortunately with the boot-loop scenario there is not enough time to perform these actions therefore I had to do the following:
For hardware reset, RESET and M_E_SDA (hole 1 and 4) - short circuit these two contacts and turn the TV on whilst on after about 20 seconds remove the link between these who contacts. Then power off and power the tv back on, this should also reset the tv to factory defaults.
After doing that, the tv still continued with the boot-loop, procured some Aerosol Freeze Spray from RS Components, and froze the IC numbered 1302. Do spray it for a while to ensure the IC cool down to a temperature where it will reset.
Low and behold ,after that the tv started without an issue and factory reset. I took the opprtunity to do a firmware upgrade via USB and all is working again.
Information was found on Digisaster website.