Trying to connect hp pavilion laptop to tv with an s video cord but cannot get a visual on the tv

Press & hold the 'FN' key and at the same time, press the 'F' key with the picture of a TV.

When the video cable is connected, make sure the tv is on input S-Video, then you may have to hold down the Fn key + the F4 key, this toggles the video processor to the different outputs in the laptop.

Hello,
When the hardware connection is made: S video in laptop port and S-video in TV there remain two things to do.
1. On the computer, extend your desktop to show on the TV. On my laptop I press Fn-F5, and an OSD appears. I can choose the output to the TV and the internal LCD by holding the Fn key while pressing the F5 key. Each time I press the F5 key the focus moves to another icon (TV only, Monitor only, LCD and monitor, etc.)
Once you know how to externd the display or divert it to the external screen, you can take care of the TV.
On the TV remote (the easiest way), there must be a key labeled AV, AUX, or some such thing. Once you press it, and OSD appears on the TV screen giving you several input options :TV, AV, S-Video, PC. Select S-Video. It will tell you no signal if you have not yet diverted screen output of laptop to it.
Use the Fn-Fx key to send the signal to the TV.
This may not be the way to configure the connection for your laptop-TV combination, but I am venturing it anyway in the hope that it will help you solve the problem.

However there are no better sources of information than your laptop manual, and the TV user guide.