Macbook air a1237 boot issue

I looked high and low for duplicate threading, with no such luck unfortunately.

So I ended up with a macbook air that is currently a deadbook. Got it from a friend to repair. Turning it on I get the chime, then the machine waits about thirty seconds before flashing the ominous folder with a question mark.

I assumed ssd failure, and thus purchased a new drive and installed it. However, this hasn't solved the problem. In addition, all of the hotkeys for booting that I know of, such as control, pressing c or r, etc, don't seem to be working. I can't get a startup menu or recovery to do a remote install or a usb one.

Suggestions for getting the MBA to recognize the file system or at least the drive to get it running?

Thanks
DS

That's a fairly old MBA you're trying to repair. As a matter of fact, it was the first of the series - Jan 2008. Does your friend have the MBA optical drive that was optional for that machine? (And an original Leopard boot disk.)

No on both accounts unfortunately. I might be able to get my hands on one of them from someone else, but I find it odd that I can't get to any boot screens whatsoever.