stuffed laptop

well I have an old "acer extensa 501 " run very well for about 4 years until
one day it stopped I took it in for repairs they said mother board u.s. .So
took it home put it in to storage and went out and got a new one( N.E.C
versa P440 no usb2) .Now just for the fun of it want to try and get the old
acer working. Here are the symptom went first died
Start the computer and all I got was a flashing under score in the left hand
corner. Tried 98 boot disk nothing happened . took ram out and put back in
(flashing it ?) still nothing this is when I took it in for repairs
Now
first thing the battery for the mother board next to the cpu is missing .
When started the flashing underscore is gone no screen at all except the
indication lights.When caps lock or number is press these indication lights
work and on start up the hard drive light lights up and the cd rom spins and
two beep about a second apart then all quiet except for the fan/hard drive
and on light
Tried 98 boot disk again no good ,tried a Norton's antivirus boot cd rom to
see if any thing happens
Any idea's well come. Thanks for any help