I suggest you try boot normal no hdmi connnected. Then connect hdmi when in the system and try this again:
xrandr --output HDMI-0 --auto --left-of eDP-1-1
if it connects your external screen the use these two commands:
autorandr --save workstation1
autorandr --change
This should hopefully do it and save it this time. It may be that you need to disable some of these previously saved scripts you mentioned, back them up.
and additional info on autorandr may help