USB Mount mounting and then turning off RPI4 B Model on start up

[red2blue]

I haven't used my RPI4 in almost 6-7 months, to which before I had no problem turning on and playing. Within this time frame, something happened on its own where today it does not boot.

When turning on the pi, I am shown the terminal as it loads and the last message I see is

mounting /boot/....
mounted /boot
Found device [device name]
Starting file system check for ...........

Within about 2 minutes stuck on the last line, the retropie logo then appears for 10 seconds, and then the HDMI turns off. I've tried all 4 USB ports. However, when I plug it in the 3.0 drive on the bottom side of the pi, i get a little more info in the terminal. Within this text, I see a red message that shoots by fast before turning off that says "failed to start ". This all happens in the span of 2 seconds after the retro pie logo is done appearing.

screenshot attached.

I am using a fstab set up to auto mount the usb external drive. I am not using the automatic way by using 'retropie-mount'. I set this up perfectly numerous times in the past, and again, it was working before but magically stopped. I tried loading both the sd card and usb drive into my pc and both are loadable.

Please help, someone :(

[red2blue]

@red2blue The HDMI turns off, the USB is still powered up which you can tell from the blue led, and the PI is still on. (red LED).

Here is my config.txt https://pastebin.com/JXtizDv3
I am running a OLED 55, 4k TV.

I've tried 3 different tv's and 1 monitor. Ive used this PI on all monitors before. I cannot SSH in, I cannot samba share in. nada. The bootup should take about 10 minutes before the retropie logo shows as this hard drive has 900gb but its only taking 2 minutes... leads me to believe there is something wrong with the mounting process.

[red2blue]

@red2blue bump