I feel for him! Having been a systems programmer for a regional utility company in "a previous life", I recall all the times we had systems problems.
What always amazed me was when the boss would watch over our shoulders and ask "So what's wrong?" ... and I would have to try very hard to sound NICE when I replied something along the lines of "Well, if I knew the answer to THAT, I would have fixed it already!"
Actually... that scenario applies to pretty much all problems, not just those that are computer related.
!!