alienware 17r2 windows 10 logon screen flickers, can't boot in safe mode

I'm running a 17r2 alienware that worked just fine up until saturday morning.  Now when I try to turn it on, once it gets to the logon screen it just flickers between the logon screen and blue screen with the "busy" circle.  At one point I was getting an error about the logonUI failing or something, but I regretfully didn't get the details and it hasn't come back up since I've been trying to troubleshoot it.  I've tried:

• booting in safe mode (with network)
• booting in safe mode (with command prompt)
• booting in safe mode
• booting in low res mode
• using an external monitor (still flickers at logon screen)
• running alien respawn (cannot repair system)

When I try to boot to safe mode(s) I get a black screen at startup.  Can still move the cursor around, but can't do anything else.  I can't refresh the PC, use system image recovery, use command prompt from advanced startup options, or system restore because apparently I'm not an admin on my own damn laptop (not even sure how that's possible, it's the only account).

From what I've found on the net, it's likely a GPU driver but I can't get into the system to even change the drivers.

I'm an idiot and the last recovery point I have is from 2015 (factory image) when the unit was brand new.  I have no idea how that will affect things and I'd rather not lose the rather large amount of important files I have on the laptop.

I don't know what happened or what to do!  Please help!