I have another post where I mentioned I received my Amiga 500.
Today I fully disassembled it -- while it visually looks clean, I'll be cleaning every inch of it.
I mentioned there was a toggle switch on the right side... Here's a photo of what I found inside:
And here is where it was supposed to be connected to:
So that's a auxiliary board for the AdRAM 540 that was in the trap door. It plugs into Gary's socket, then Gary goes in to it. The manual for the ram board says to optionally run a wire from a jumper to a toggle switch so you can enable or disable the ram extension.
For some reason, some one cut the wire, and neatly spooled up the ends. and it's been that way for quite a while judging by the fact dust collected on the black tape holding the wire spool at the toggle end.
Not sure why someone would do this, but it's possible the ram board isn't working, and rather than remove it and restore Gary, someone just permanently disabled it
Alternatively, someone got themselves a AdRAM extension from another Amiga (wire cut to remove it) and never finished wiring up the toggle to it. Also not making a lot of sense.
Now that I can see close with the photos, there is a fine layer of particles on the board... dust or mold, or mildew... I'm waiting for some cans of PCB cleaner to arrive...
Oh, and I learned while disassembling it that the sheet metal slices fingers...