Cannot install windows updates or messenger

[malccy]

hi

really hop someone can help me; have spent a day installing a fresh copy of windows XP on a friends pc and it will install service pack 3 but fail on everything after. I had to install every update manually by noting all the failed updates down and downloading and installing them individually.

This took ages and what made it worse was that I installed Office 2003 and had to do the same process with each of those updates.

In the end I re-installed XP hoping that it was something that I did the first time but the same thing has happened as before. I am also unable to install Live Messenger as it is also failing to install.

I have lowered the security in Internet Explorer and listed the update sites as being safe and also deleted the system distribution folder hoping that it would be replaced and work but no joy.

Would really appreciate some help on this one.

All best

 

[Dano]

Had the same happen to me last week when I attempted to install a torrented MCE XP on my laptop instead of the bloated image it shipped with, decided it was the torrent image at fault and restored back to the bloated default which worked just fine.

 

[malccy]

Have used a retail XP and also a retail XP with built in SP2 (both original) and have same problem.