Hp compaq presario sr1830nx will never go past error page that asks which mode ud like to start in..If i pick any the screen goes black after

Are you getting any video display before the amber light goes off?

check the power of the computer

Check This URL out from HP. It will help you.
Compaq Presario CQ50-100 Notebook PC series - HP Notebook PCs - Troubleshooting Black Screen Displays with No Error Messages During Startup or Boot - c01997899 - HP Business Support Center

It can't be done trust me. You may need to boot to safe mode by pressing either F12 or F8 before windows loads to boot the safe mode. Some type of driver is trying to load on boot up the machine doesn't like that is causing your error.

I had this happen to a fairly new machine that it ended up being the video driver/card.

when upower up press F8 key then enter in enable vga mode.
then set screeen resolution to 1024*768
and if u r not abled to login enable vga then enter in safe mode.
then go to start menu run then type in run "chkdsk /r"
thats it
then restart it then it fix error on hardddisk.

reset cmos on motherboard, then reboot.

It looks like you're encountering an endless reboot? Here's what to do to find the actual error message.

1. Turn on the computer, and press F8 after the POST screen but before Windows attempts to start to access the advanced startup options.
2. Select "Disable Automatic Restart On System Failure" and press Enter.

You should now get a blue screen with an error message and error codes. Please write these codes down and report back.

Take out the hard drive. Then turn the notebook back on and see if it goes past the Compaq screen. If it does then you know your hard drive is bad and it would have to be replaced. It could be shorting out the motherboard.

Hi there
If you tried in safe mode and still no joy you will have to perform a system recovery with the recovery disk you got with the laptop or the recovery partition, Please be aware that you will loose data.

Good luck

Bios is not on an hard drive, is on a memory chipinside computer. Your main problem is not with Bios, but with system.
On many Compaq you can start the recovery tool by pressing f10 or f11 on startup. The system recovery tool it is located on hard disk, if it does not start it had been deleted or is damaged.

In your case Windows is corrupted, that is the reason why it is freezing , and then giving the blue error screen.

You need to get a Windows setup disk and reintall Windows. If you install windows from a generic setup disk you will need to install drivers after installing.
Drivers can be downloaded from HP website.

Another solution is calling the phone number listed on the user manual to contact HP. you can buy from them an original recovery CD, in this case you won't need drivers.

Otherwise you can ask a quote to a local repair shop for a system reinstall, I think it is about $80.