Sony laptop with a cracked screen: can I switch to external monitor at boot?

I have a partially functional Sony PCG-7113L laptop. Partial since it seems to be booting but the screen is damaged so I can't see any output it sends there.

It has a standard VGA output that one can use to switch to an external monitor (like a projector) after it boots. But I want to do it right when I turn on the machine, for the external monitor to work as a replacement for the cracked screen. I tried the standard key combination but it did not work.



Question: is there any sort of trick to "blindly" switch to external output at boot? I googled it but did not find any definitive info that it can or cannot be done.

Thx