Changed boot settings, now laptop doesn't show login

I have a year old asus k55n that has been upgraded to win 8.1. Was running a bit slow, so i was checking settings, and noticed that in msconfig it was set to the limited boot option (the last one on the list), not normal boot. I had noticed before, and when i would set it to normal, it would be back at the limited option the next time I used the computer. This time, however, upon reboot, it took a longer time than usual to boot, and then it gets to the screen where there is usually the user name and password box (with the power button in the lower right corner and the accessiblity button in the lower left), but there is no password box or user name/image. I can change the accessilibity options, and use the power button, so the computer hasn't frozen. I suspected perhaps there was a secure boot issue, so i toggled those settings in bios to no avail. Tried recovery disk, booted up ubuntu 14.04, and all the files are there and doesn't appear to be any issues that way. SFC /scannow says errors found but couldn't fix. DISM says repairable, but i cant seem to run it in such a way that it finds the source files to do the repair, and i'm not sure that is an issue, as using the advance options from the recovery menu I can boot into safe mode and the computer runs fine. ANy help whatsoever appreciated, and thanks for taking the time to read my long rambling post.