PC not installing windows updates

[one ill cat]

Hey guys

I've been cleaning up Rob's sister's laptop for her. She had loads of crap on it & she'll be the first to admit she hasn't a clue about computers.

I got her an external drive to store all her photos & stuff on to let her laptop breathe a bit, & will all the crap off it she has 213/298 GB free which should be plenty for her as she only uses it for word processing, web surfing, iTunes sync with her phone & removing photos from her camera.

I've ran disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, deleted all temporary files etc. However, there are 19 windows updates needed. I've tried a few times to install these. Basically I get them downloaded, then allow it to restart to finish the installation & when it's restarting it fails to complete the installation. I'm not given any error code that I can google, it just says its failed.

All advice welcome on this & also anything else I should be doing to make her machine run as efficiently as possible? Thanks!

[D3kka]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

Try the resolution above

Edit - what system is the laptop running actually cause that solution is for XP

[one ill cat]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943144

Try the resolution above

Edit - what system is the laptop running actually cause that solution is for XP

It's running vista.

I found an error code after all in the update history. Seems to be error code 80071a91.
Currently trying these instructions:

http://blog.stevex.net/2007/05/80071a91/

Should know in the next 10/15 minutes if it has worked or not. Fingers crossed.

[one ill cat]

woohoo, it actually worked. I've never had this problem with any of my own computers so was a bit lost. God knows how long she's been failing to install important updates . . .

Any advice on programs/methods for cleaning it up will be appreciated. I'm delighted I got this sorted at least.

[MrsFlushdraw]

woohoo, it actually worked. I've never had this problem with any of my own computers so was a bit lost. God knows how long she's been failing to install important updates . . .

Any advice on programs/methods for cleaning it up will be appreciated. I'm delighted I got this sorted at least.

Is it running really slow?

[one ill cat]

Is it running really slow?

Tbh, it's not too bad now. My laptops would have higher spec, so they would probably be nippier than hers due to their make up. I've shown her before about disk cleanup/defragmenter. Now I know she's not been doing it from how long it took to do it for me, but I've since got that side of things back on track.

She had loads of photos on it & for some reason had multiple copies of the same photo which I'm sure wasn't helping as there wouldn't be anything above standard in terms of memory in it. All such stored things have been moved to an external drive so that should fix that side of things.

Is disk cleanup & defragmenter all I should be doing to help her keep it healthy going forward?

[TM2204]

Run CCleaner cat...