Hi Lou de Guzman,
Thank you for the update.
You mentioned "my current workaround to be able to use power query is to open excel in safe mode", the problem might be related to some add-ins. You can try disabling all add-ins in the application first, and then enable each add-on separately to find out which one caused the problem. The steps are as follows. For more detailed steps, you can refer to this article: View, manage, and install add-ins in Office programs