Many, many years ago, I let a friend borrow my A500. When I got it back a couple of weeks later, it turned out his 3 year old sister had jumped on the trafo, repeatedly; it only worked if you turned it upside down (some components were, of course, loose). The stupid thing? Instead of fixing it (another friend had borrowed my soldering iron), I just kept it upside down (some times I had to whack it real hard to get it to work). After some time, it of course refused to work. So, rather than fixing it properly, I "fixed" it with some spare pieces of wire and some tape (don't ask me how). Lots of tape. Needless to say it overheated...
The moral of the story? If someone tells you "Trust me, I'm an electrician", run. Run very fast, and very far...
