I have great respect and sympathy for people working help desks.
I had an embarrassing incident shortly after I got a new piece of equipment for my lab. On Friday we turned everything off because we were having a power outage on Saturday to test the back up generators.
On Monday, I turned everything back on and this one piece wasn't working at all. I spent several hours on the phone with technical support trying to trouble shoot the problem. Then the guy says, "pull the piece out and reach behind and do this".. I pulled it apart and what did I find, Another power switch hidden in the back. This stupid piece of equipment had
2 power switches. Why would you put 2 power switches on a piece of equipment? I told this guy it was a new piece of equipment for us and it could be a simple problem. I was so embarrassed!
Now I understand why the first thing they ask is "is it plugged in? is the power on?"