what i'm doing right now - logical, step-by-step troubleshooting - is what they taught me when i trained to be a tech support agent.

this is what a tech support job is actually like: you have to use logical thinking and the power of elimination to isolate and identify the problem....

you don't just look at it and know the answer, like some kind of savant. it's slow, boring work. but, it's how you have to do it.