A couple of weeks ago I noticed I wasn't getting any automatic updates, so I tried going to the Windows Update site, and it just stuck on the message about 'Checking for the latest version of the Windows Update software...'

I'm using XP Pro and IE6SP1 (which I've since reinstalled completely). The closest MS support article suggests Zone Alarm can cause this, so I tried disabling my Sygate firewall just in case this might be causing a similar problem, but no joy. Any ideas what I might try next??

Cheers to anyone that can help

Try this site for troubleshooting Windows Update.

http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/

Windowsupdate doesn't like my html proxy. I have to disable it to go there.

Dunno if that helps you any.

Already visited the official troubleshooting site, and really the only solution which is kind of relevant is to do with problems caused by having a firewall running (which I've already taken into account).

So, reinstalled both XPSP1a and IE6SP1, and the Automatic Updates service seems to work now, but I still can't access windowsupdate.com for some reason (still no error message)

And now, even though IE works fine, every time I log on to Windows I get a dialog asking me to update IE6 - if I accept this it'll tell me a newer version is installed, and bomb out. Great - but it'll do this process every time I start Windows!

Anyway, cheers for your help chaps.

Already visited the official troubleshooting site, and really the only solution which is kind of relevant is to do with problems caused by having a firewall running (which I've already taken into account).

So, reinstalled both XPSP1a and IE6SP1, and the Automatic Updates service seems to work now, but I still can't access windowsupdate.com for some reason (still no error message)

And now, even though IE works fine, every time I log on to Windows I get a dialog asking me to update IE6 - if I accept this it'll tell me a newer version is installed, and bomb out. Great - but it'll do this process every time I start Windows!

Anyway, cheers for your help chaps.

sometimes it is hopeless, u need to format.... put all on rewrite cd and or on other harddisk/computer before u format....

I found it odd but i once installed mdeaon toolz for mounting images.

i usually use alchol 120% but on this occasion i installed the above.

I found that windows update failed because one of the files used by update was being used by mdeamon tools.

I had to uninstasll mdeaon tools and win update worked again.

C.B