Windows Update does nothing - XP Pro

[Relztrah]

I recently reinstalled Windows XP Pro and downloaded all updates up to and including SP2. But for some reason now when I click on Start>Windows Update absolutely nothing happens. Normally the update website launches. I made a shortcut on the desktop to wupdmgr and get the same result when I click on it. I have automatic updates set, so I guess it really doesn't matter. But SP3 is not installing automatically and I would like to do it manually.

If I just do my updates the old fashioned way by surfing to www.windowsupdate.com, and click on Express, I get the Checking for the latest updates for your computer... and that's what I'll see forever and ever, amen. Even if I had all updates installed I would get a message informing me thereof, not the Checking for the latest updates for your computer...but never finding any.

Anybody have any idea what's happening here?

[saphalline]

The one time I ran into this problem (symptomatic-wise) was for a customer, thus time was an issue. Since I had just reinstalled Windows and was going through the updates, it didn't matter if I just wiped it and started over. That's what I did. So I never did figure out the cause. :(

That being said, you could try several things. You could wipe the temp folder associated with updates; you could uninstall and reinstall SP2 (with an off-line installer); you could manually install SP3 using the off-line installer, etc.

I'd be interested to know if any of these things actually works, for future reference. I only saw this problem once and never again, but that's not to say I won't see it again in the future!