Please help with updates

I'm running XP home and I think I have a serious problem.
I've had a run of bad luck with hard drives which I had to replace and sound
card was added, Ram added.
This last time I had to install XP it seems to work fine except it won't let
me do any updates. Won't even let me have the updates page!
I suspect that XP thinks I've made too many changes. But I'm not sure. Is
this possible? I really don't want SP 2, I'm not sure it's a good bet. I work
with Dreamweaver and had a hard time with that and several other things after
the last time I did that update. This is a new hard drive, so I had a chance
to do it right. Any ideas? And how can I get this product reactivated?
This is NOT a bootleg copy. It's legit. Promise.
Thanks in advance,
Kathy

"threedoves",

You already have SP2 installed, but perhaps we can look at the specific
problem:

1. Do you get any error message at all when you visit the website:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com?
2. If not, what happens when you go there? Do you see an hour glass and
nothing happens or ...?
3. Could you look through your Windows Update log? Here is how you can do
that:

I am sorry that you have encountered this issue. There is a log that is
created for all of your windows update downloads. Would you mind opening
it, copying and pasting the latest and most relevant lines from that log
back here to the thread?

Here are the step by step procedures to do that:
On Windows XP:

1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. type: %WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log
4. Click OK
5. Next, when the log has opened, scroll all the way to the bottom.
6. Look for an error code, in the following format: 0x8000FFFF or
0xFFFFFB40.
(The easiest thing here is to search UP for 0x and then read the lines
around the error.)
7. Copy the whole line this code is on
8. Paste it into the reply to this thread in the newsgroup.

Sincerely,

Pat Walters [MSFT]

"threedoves" <> wrote in message
news4EA401D-E68C-4950-8439-...
> I'm running XP home and I think I have a serious problem.
> I've had a run of bad luck with hard drives which I had to replace and
sound
> card was added, Ram added.
> This last time I had to install XP it seems to work fine except it won't
let
> me do any updates. Won't even let me have the updates page!
> I suspect that XP thinks I've made too many changes. But I'm not sure. Is
> this possible? I really don't want SP 2, I'm not sure it's a good bet. I
work
> with Dreamweaver and had a hard time with that and several other things
after
> the last time I did that update. This is a new hard drive, so I had a
chance
> to do it right. Any ideas? And how can I get this product reactivated?
> This is NOT a bootleg copy. It's legit. Promise.
> Thanks in advance,
> Kathy