I think gord_lib was suggesting trying to get a floppy that will boot
the ubuntu live cd. maybe try this for starters:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SmartBootManager

But you still need to get to your boot options. And if you can do
that, maybe just from the cd will work. When booting, did you push F2
and esc at the same time? I would try pushing them repeatedly during
the boot process. And I would try all combos... pushing them
repeatedly together, pushing just esc repeatedly during boot, and
pushing just F2 repeatedly during boot.. and see if anything happens.

In the manual (<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SmartBootManager>)
there are instructions on how to remove the hard drive, and they look
relatively simple. There's always a chance you could damage
something, but if you are willing to take that risk, you could also
just remove the hard drive and try to boot from a cd as a last resort.
w/o the HD, you should force the laptop to default to the next boot
option. If booting from CD is not supported, you can still try
booting from a floppy also with the HD out. (if the floppy is really
old, it may be dead/degraded beyond readability, and you will need to
make a new one.)