Which button?

Ok I pride myself on my technical skills, Im pretty good with the 'puter and frequently help out my neighbour with his numerous questions - the latest issue is that the fan is making a noise at night thus keeping him awake, I suggested that turning it off would be a good idea, then later Ill pop round and clean it "I cant do that what will happen to all my emails?"  Ive tried to explain but he isnt convinced that they wont disappear into cyber space for good if his pc isnt turned on....

so why is it the Sky box totally baffles me when it fails? its a box with buttons but when it fails I cannot fathom how to make it behave, I suspect it's age has something to do with the frequent problems, last week it kept saying no signal being received, today the screen was blank, I tried everything, turned it off and on again several times, rang Sky and got their lovely helpful "may I call you by your first name" technical bod, who guided me through the process.. unplug the TV and unplug the skart cable......wtf why does that make a difference?

Now ok Ill admit to once telling my mother to unplug the printer cable and shake it to get rid of any data that might be caught in it..... but it did work!  but I still havent figured why unplugging cables and switching the ends round could possibly make a difference? I have visions of a roomful of technicalbods laughing their wee socks off "you wont beleive what I got a client doing today?"

I used to work for a well known computer company on the engineering desk, Id take calls from clients whose machine was 'broked' - we would have a set proceedure to take them through, step one is the machine turned on? yes? are you sure are the lights on? what is on the screen? and on and on, just once and only the once did I make a booboo of mega proportions, I sent an engineer 200 miles to look at a computer with total failure, nothing was working, the engineer eventually returned somewhat sooner than I had expected and certainly not the happiest bunny in the hutch.

Id gone through the entire check with the woman and she had answered correctly - Id asked if the machine was plugged in, yes it was, but Id failed todo because Id assumed she would have checked automatically that the socket was actually switched on! It's not rocket science, it's not hard, but it helps considerably.

Another client who lacked a few brain cells I think, who daily rang for help, finally in frustration I asked if she had windows, yes I do, well pick up the computer and hurl it through one, fortunately she didn't.

I digress as usual, my Sky box now works, but the sound is very dodgy, well more the speech is out of synch on the film Im watching, other channels seem fine, now do I ring the technicalbods and ask for help? do I unplug the thing switch a few cables around, or do I just assume that its their fault, give up and watch something else?

yeah yeah Ill go watch something else.

better yet Ill go cook something for the kids, it's the school holidays - week three is looming, do you know how long a week is?