Need some help with Macbook Pro A1260

Question

I purchased a non working MacBook Pro from Ebay as way to try out servicing Apple hardware along with the Windows hardware I service.
I have been able to get the laptop to power up, but only in an odd way.  By reflowing the logic board it will now start up, but only in certain order.
If I reset the SMC by pressing the power button for 20 seconds and than connect the power supply and still holding in the power button for an additional 20 seconds it starts when I release the power button.  I can turn it off and on until I unplug it and plug it back in.  When I do that it will not start again, if I perform the same SMC reset procedure it will work and turn on.  During this time the light on the power connector is off.  When it is LIT it will not start.  I also get just a white screen and no Apple logo.  It will also boot directly from the harddrive.  The problem is that the drive is a windows OS drive.  I put the drive in to see if the logic board would see it.
This machine was shipped to me without the hard drive and without the recovery disks.
Now as I understand it, unlike Windows and Linux you cannot boot from an install disk for the OS with an Apple product, is that correct?  That means I'm stuck here without the recovery disks?
When I first reflowed the logic board it booted to the apple logo then asked what to boot.  It seemed to boot fine and show the apple logo a couple times but now it is not.  I did start it up prior to getting it completely installed in the machine.  Should I try the reflow again?  Is it possible to get the recovery disks from Apple?  The apple store near by was not very helpful.  The person at the door was a little condescending, "it's nice to try and save a little money", "wow that's an old piece of hardware",  He totally missed the point that this an exercise in education.  I'm trying to learn how to help people when they cannot afford to purchase a new machine.  The same thing I do for Windows PC users.
Thank you for any and all suggestions and assistance.  I look forward to recovering this and checking out what the Mac users have telling me for years.

Answer 1

Ogelthorpe suggested that I add my two cents here.
This site is a wonderful accurate resource for a Lot of information about every Mac ever issued. The link is directly to the MacBook you seem to have:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-2-duo-2 .4-15-early-2008-penryn-specs.html
Your Mac initially runs the Power On Self Test. When that test passes, the chime is generated by software. If a reliable source of software can be found, booting is likely. If it fails only due to memory, the power light will flash a deliberate pattern (not just flickering), and it may also beep in a similar fashion. This indicates "not enough working RAM to start up", so in some cases, you will want to remove all the memory and look for those flashes.
The simplest boot-up procedure any Mac can do is to boot up while you hold the Alt/Option key. This runs a ROM-resident routine which draws a pale blue or gray screen, and over the next several minutes, explores all possible addresses looking for all possible appropriate source of appropriate software. If any are found, an Icon is drawn for each, and its name will be listed underneath. The mouse can be used to select one and click the arrow to proceed. Mac OS X can boot from any attached device, such as a USB stick or external (self-powered) DVD Reader or External Hard Drive.
The gray Apple in not resident inside your Mac's Hardware. Its loading indicates an appropriate source of software was found, and the first blocks of the boot loader were successfully transferred into memory. Hanging with the gray Apple on the screen indicates it failed while trying to run the loaded blocks of the Boot Loader.  With certain extremely rare graphics issues, the gray Apple can appear scrambled like a puzzle.
Many system functions, including fan and temperature control, charging, system clock generation and low level inputs such as keyboard presses are handled by the System Management Controller SMC. Resetting the SMC in case it has gotten into an odd state is vital to debugging.
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
If you removed the motherboard for baking, you may have seen the MagSafe charge board. These sometimes need replacement if there have been serious power problems previously, and are available as spare parts from the sources mentioned in posts above. Most other components are soldered in place, and in much later models, the RAM chips are soldered in place as well.
Mac OS X 10.6 uses the Installer/Utilities DVD to do auxiliary functions. Once you move to 10.7 and beyond, these are moved to the Recovery_HD partition on the Hard drive. Once installed, you can copy your Recovery_HD to a 1 GB USB stick using an Apple Utility, which can be booted independently. Macs after about 2011 (except the silver tower Mac Pro) have added the ability in firmware to get this stuff off the Internet via common WiFi set-ups. They can, from a cold dead start, download the stuff needed for Utilities and Installs.
If you download 10.7 or later form the Mac App store, you can make an Installer/Utilities USB stick on an 8GB stick. Making a dual-layer DVD is also possible, but is not as popular because it takes so long to boot up and install off a DVD. You must intervene in the process to make such an image. It must be done after the download is complete, and before the Installation has finished, because the Install package is deleted at the end of the Install. You can steer this or any Install to nay attached and properly-initialized drive.
There is no EXPLICIT copy protection on Mac OS X tools and images, but when downloaded, all will be tagged with the Apple-ID you supplied, and any re-load will require that same Apple-ID and password, or the new owner will need to download their own fresh copy using their own Apple-ID. If you are working mostly for a single client organization, you can ask them to provide their preferred Apple-ID, or create one and provide it to them to be used for their overall Mac APP Store purchases. Once purchased (even for $0), items in the Mac App Store appear on the Purchases page of the logged in Apple-ID, promised as "forever".
Windows does not believe there are any other Operating Systems in existence, so it limits you to booting from the Internal drive, limits the number of partitions that can be created to a total of four, and as its crowning achievement: should you use ANY Windows tools to directly modify or even resize disk partition information, the Apple Partition information is lost, and Mac OS X can no longer boot. Windows is a terrible guest.