Daughter locked out of outlook.com account, and getting can't help right now message

This is a true nightmare. My daughter is in college and has finals soon. Last week she said she got a prompt asking for a phone number to verify. This was the first time we've seen this. I have her account linked to my cell number. We entered it, and a couple days later it asked again. Later it asked for the last 4 of my phone number and then says it can't help at this time. We read online that MS will lock your machine for 24 hours in some cases. We wait and it still is not working. This is a think pad with bit encryption as well. She has 1000's of hours worth of work done on this machine and she can not get access and the drive is encrypted. This is a complete nightmare. We're in real trouble here and need help. There's no phone number and no one to go to here. Why is MS locking us out of trying again after a full 24 hour wait time.