Dead TAM

Has your TAM been unplugged for a long period of time or do you frequently disconnect it from electrical power? If so, the internal battery is probably very weak or dead. A dead battery can cause a number of problems, including startup issues. I'd suggest replacing it first, before proceeding with any more troubleshooting. It's a black plastic cube, having a pair of wire leads that plug into the motherboard, and is secured in place with velcro. The battery is a 4.5-volt alkaline, so you can look for a Rayovac 870, 871, or equivalent.

Gozar
The restoration of functionality begins as Jeff has written. If then your TAM's system cannot find a valid System in a blest folder, you will have some trouble-shooting to do, but the size of the HDD will not be amongst your larger concerns as long as the boot System is 7.5.2 or higher. The TAM can support Systems/OSs from 7.5.3 to 9.1. It is System/OS that determines hard drive capacity:

Systems 4.1 to 7.1.3 max. 2GB
System 7.5 max. 4GB
System 7.5.2 max. 2TB (other considerations may reduce this limit)
OS 8.1 ushered in the HFS+ format for hard drives, allowing more economical use of drives >2GB
OS 9 increased max. file size from 2GB to 2E63 Bytes.

Apple IIe; 15 x 68K; 7 x PPC; 5 x G3 System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x

Gozar,

Start with the basics. Computers that have been off the power grid for a long time need a warm boot because of dead PRAM batteries. Turn on the compter, let it 'warm up' for a few seconds. Now hold down the 'command' key and the 'control' key and then press the 'soft power' key on the upper right corner of the keyboard ( may be top center on some keyboards).

Then post back with the sound that it makes. Chimes, breaking glass, musical chords, what ever. Allow time for it to cycle through its chores. Make note of any error code it might give.

If you do not hear chimes turn on the power. Wait for noises. Make note of which noises you hear, ie. power supply fan comming on. Try turnning power off and right back on immediately.

Also, zapping the PRAM might be called for depending on how responsive the machine is. You may need to do surgery to clean contacts, etc. but start with simple and proceed from there. As for the hard drive? did it work in the past or did someone put it in, fail to get it working so they sold the TAM to you?

Good luck. Post back with details.

Jim

See Mac PRAM, NVRAM, CUDA/PMU & Battery Tutorial

Cheers, Tom

I don't know whether you are following this thread any longer, but if you get some life out of it with a new battery, you may also need to remove/extract the motherboard a few times or clean the contacts. That board is like a fast 5500/6500 board -- every signal passes through the "Big Connector" at the back of the board.