I actually don’t subscribe to many tech forums. Perhaps I should. I was hoping maybe someone here on FR might know where I can look for answers, but with ShadowAce out of the game while he rehabilitates from his accident answers are few and far between.
You seem pretty tech savvy. Have you checked if Background Intelligent Services was turned on? I ran in to that once, where it was turned off and couldn’t get updates. I’m not sure why it wasn’t but turning it on eventually got the updates going again.
As far as the time it takes for updates to happen, it seems like even Windows 7 updates can take forever these days. I just let them run and eventually it happens. I can only imagine what Vista would be like now. Good luck.
CGato