Older Acer laptop will not update - Windows Update hangs up

Hi,

My cousin brought her Acer Aspire 5349 to me to see if I could help with a Windows Update problem. It seemed there were a couple of old updates that were preventing all future updates from installing and it was caught in an infinite "restart to install updates" loop, but nothing was ever installed. I tried evertyhing I knew to do, nothing worked. So, I rest the machine to factory settings. Twice. Update still will not cooperate. It installed one update for Windows Update itself, but nothing after that. It just sits there "searching for updates" on and on. No error. Just no progress. I downloaded the Update Readiness Tool, and I'm getting the same thing...Windows Update Standalone Installer says "Searching for updates on this computer..." for HOURS. No progress. Wireless connectivity is good. I even tried disabling Windows Security Essentials, still nothing.

I've tried the update troubleshooter. No luck. It gets to "Checking for updates online" and then hangs.

I'd be so very grateful for any suggestions y'all might have. I'm ready to throw it out the window.

Thank you!
kg

Thank you ThrashZone! Problem solved. Those 3 critical updates were hanging up the whole system. Running smoothly now. :)