Trying to boot with new HD, stuck at "verifying dmi pool data"

This is my first time trying to fix a computer, so please forgive my ignorance.

I recently changed the motherboard and hard drive on my hp computer. Before I did that, I was able to create a windows 7 recovery cd (before the old HD died entirely), and I also have a system image on an external hard drive. Problem is that I cannot get past "Verifying DMI pool data... INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER". At first, I would put the disk in, but my keyboard wouldn't work, so I couldn't press the enter key. (Although oddly, the keyboard does work to get me into BIOS and in BIOS). So, after some research, I went into BIOS and changed the USB keyboard setting to enabled. After that when I went back to try to boot again, as soon as it got to "verifying...", it waited a couple of seconds and then just turned off. I didn't even have time to put a cd in and press enter, even if I wanted to. Now it just keeps doing the same thing. I have the boot priority set to CDROM first, then HD, and to be quite honest, I am not even sure that was the right move. The HD is blank - I haven't done anything to it. The only thing I know is a friend who is head of IT for his company, gave me this HD because he had it lying around. It is in working order, but I have no idea about partitioning, or what the even is. I don't know... I am confused and have spent HOURS trying to figure this out with no luck.

Hoping someone can help!

Well, I have been able to stop the spontaneous shutting off by making a few changes in BIOS, but it still doesn't accept the disk, and keeps prompting me to insert one. So, I just downloaded a Windows installation img and burned that to a dvd and will give that a try. Perhaps that will work since it's a clean install. I will update.