I think I had something similar, it froze at one point or another when starting. I can’t find the thread back, it was on a forum, but if my memory serves me right:
I believe that if you run spyder --reset, then edit the file ~/.config/spyder-py3/config/spyder.ini with, at least:
check_updates_on_startup = False
[kite]
enable = False
call_to_action = False
show_installation_dialog = False
show_onboarding = False
show_installation_error_message = True
I can’t be entirely sure, as I can’t find the thread back, there may be other lines to change. Then again, if you find the thread, they also changed one line which was not needed for me and deactivated dark mode or something, and they were all complaining about dark mode not working.
PS: For me, the last version of spyder (5.0.0) does not work, it only arrived a few days ago so it shouldn’t be a problem for you, but if you updated, then try downgrading and applying the fix. I wrote it there.