Compaq Laptop won't go past POST

[t3h l337 n3wb]

I was using my laptop yesterday and it froze for a bit, so I tried a hard shutdown. However, it then became responsive again but was already undergoing the soft shutdown process. So, I let it run and then turned it back on, only to see that it wouldn't go past the POST screen with the options such as BIOS, recovery, etc. But no matter what I do, it just freezes at that screen and doesn't go any further. So I'm thinking it's some kind of hardware error, but how am I supposed to diagnose a laptop? Could the CPU be fried? Would I have to send it in for repairs? So much more frustrating than a desktop...

 

[xSauronx]

if the cpu was fried it wouldnt start up at all

could be a problem with the motherboard itself, or the ram. ram is the easiest to check if you know someone who will let you try a stick of theirs, or let you put yours in their machine to see how it acts.