Comment by dbtx

Have you tried "Have you tried x?"?

This follows naturally from "What have you tried?", from the "information to include when asking for help", on which Q&A sites seem to agree.

It's rather innocent at face value and it leaves the door wide open for the person to explain what went wrong when they tried, or why they opted against it without trying, etc., without implying anything negative --except to a really frustrated and/or rough-edged person who is determined to receive everything in a negative way.

Yes there are a dozen mentions already for "did you try/have you tried" so here's my grain of sand on that pile.