A few questions about resetting the BIOS settings.

That white 2 pin header is where the battery would be connected. There is a picture on the page in the link NavyLCD posted that shows the wires from the battery going to it. It appears somebody already removed it? If it has already been removed, the BIOS has reset to defaults on its own. Keep in mind, on a laptop, some settings will not be reset by removing the CMOS battery. If you set a BIOS password for instance that will not be erased by removing the battery. It's stored in non volatile RAM. Everything else will be erased though, boot order, etc will go back to defaults.

NavyLCDR said:

Great catch! That explains the absence of a battery - it's supposed to be there but isn't.

I had to zoom in on one of the pictures in the link you posted to see it. Plus it was upside down compared to the picture the OP posted.

BicycleRow said:

So, I just have to buy a new battery?

Yes and no? A missing CMOS battery won't prevent a PC from booting up, or cause the no display issue you posted. Not as far as I know. So you have other issues to sort out.

BicycleRow have you tried booting it up with an external monitor connected? Also, is this maybe the result of a failed BIOS flash?

Caledon Ken said:

Sorry, i thought we may have gotten lucky. Hadn't seen a battery hidden before. If it doesn't have a battery then it must be using a capacitor to store a charge and then trickle that into bios. Shorting capacitors would be a real pain.

I assume you want to keep using this laptop so like someone else suggested it maybe quicker and easier to get a replacement keyboard with a working function key.

Now on some keyboards you dont have to press the fn to get f2. Likely you've already tried this as well.

On a laptop, the BIOS could retain its settings if powered from the main battery, even if the CMOS battery was dead or removed. All would be fine until you unplugged the power pack and removed the main battery. The after a few minutes the settings would be lost. Date and time would be wrong and the BIOS would go back to all default settings. On a desktop PC, that doesn't have any other battery, all would be lost every time you shut down if the CMOS battery was dead or missing.