Toughbook CF 30 will not boot past BIOS from CD or HD - just get a flashing cursor

[imsoco]

I bought a CF 30 from a police department in Colorado. Looks to be in great shape except it won't boot past BIOS . I can go into BIOS and change settings, boot sequence, etc, but that is where the fun stops. Booting from HD or from a Windows XP or 7 full install disc, I hear the drives a turnin but all I get is a flashing cursor on the screen before it reboots. I have tried the boot override feature in the BIOS and selected the DVD drive without any change in behavior. It looks like a great machine and I am dying to give it a go.
BIOS finds the HD and DVD drive. I even ran a full diagnostics from BIOS and EVERYTHING tested perfect.
Is there a special security feature with the toughbooks that is not normal? I have built over 25 pc's, loaded and reloaded OS's from DOS 2.0 on up and have not seen this problem before. (at least in DOS I got a caret before the cursor).
I know this must be a simple fix for one of you geniuses out there. Please share your wisdom.

 

[hang-the-9]

Could be a bad DVD drive, try a USB boot stick.

 

[imsoco]

DVD drive is new. Boot stick also did not work. It did not recognize the usb stick but did recogzine the port in BIOS.

 

[hang-the-9]

Try to find an original restore disk then, or check the manual to it about restoring it. I worked on these before but not enough to remember how they were imaged.

 

[imsoco]

I had no idea a Microsoft Partner OS disc would not run an every intel machine. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find an original disk or ISO file for this unit. Any suggestions?