The ADAM has two main boards in it. An ADAM board and a Colecovision board and since the latter seems to work, it looks like obviously something on the ADAM side.
When you power up, the system does a check on devices attached then if all is well, the printer should do a reset (that familiar buzz....click)then the electronic typewriter screen come up with a chirping sound. YOu dont see that.
And pulling reset with a tape installed at this point should now load that tape.
Do you have a keyboard plugged in?, and is it plugged in snug and into the front jack (the side jack, although it looks identical is meant for the disk drive)
Pull the expansion bay cover off. Are the two tape drive connectors snug?
Are there any expansion boards installed in any of the three slots? If so, immediately send them to me
I personally would be tempted to take the thing apart and put it back together again noting along the way obvious things like loose connections, chips which need reseating. I have revived some machines by doing just that.
Did the previous owner have any success with it? Is the issue a relatively new phenomenon or has it sat in a basement for 20 years and this is the first attempt to fire it up?
Yes I do not see the typewriter screen . The printer humms then clicks and nothing on the screen but solid black. So from snow on tv I turn adam on and black screen the computer reset nothing happens then colecovision reset button says turn off and put game in. Yes the tape drives are snug and so is keyboard in front. Sorry no expansion boards for ya. The last owner said everything worked and he had tested everything. Obviously he was wrong. I am kind of afarid to take apart cause I really want this to work and I would like to make that my last resort. I would pay someone to fix it before I toke it apart. Thanks for help. Any other ideals that I can try.