If you remove both HDD and SSD, you should still be able to boot from either CD or flash drive. Try downloading UBCS (
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) on another computer and burn the image into a CD. Place this on the CD bay and start the computer. It should go straight into the CD OS with or without SSD/HDD in their respective bays. If this doesn't happen, you might have a problem with the MoBo.
You did discharge yourself before opening the computer, right? (I usually touch the sink faucet and then avoid touching carpet on my way to the laptop - no shoes or socks). They also sell a wrist band for controlling shocks into computers.