Nokia Lumia 1020, stuck on spinning gears/sad face. What do I do?

[Windows Central Question]

Nokia Lumia 1020, stuck on spinning gears/sad face.

I've tried doing the hard reset, and soft reset however when I hold down the volume down button for 15 seconds the exclamation mark does not appear. The Nokia Logo just blinks and keeps blinking . I'm at wit's end here.

 

[Maurizio Troso]

Re: Nokia Lumia 1020, stuck on spinning gears/sad face.

I've tried doing the hard reset, and soft reset however when I hold down the volume down button for 15 seconds the exclamation mark does not appear. The Nokia Logo just blinks and keeps blinking . I'm at wit's end here.

Soft reset is holding vol down + power 15 secs
but unplug phone first for stoppin loop

 

[John Christopoulos]

Connect phone to PC and start Windows device recovery tool. Reinstall the OS and that's it