Update on Windows 2000 in endless loop

I am attempting to use Windows Update from IE on a Windows 2000 machine.

The program appears to be in an endless loop.

It displays "Checking for latest updates for your computer..." for periods
up to 10 minutes with green progress indicator. Then it flips to "making
sure you have the right version of update". Then repeats. Seemingly
endlessly.

The program used to work.

I currently mostly use the automatic update facility, not via the browser.
That works.

I have tried to track down a KB article, 193657, but it is unavailable.

Any ideas how I get this working again?

I may have resolved this.

I started moving through the options in the web interface. (Change Settings
etc.) This appeared to trigger completion of the "update listing" process.

A successful update followed. After that another successful update, which
also showed up while I was looking at the options, FAQ's etc.

In neither of these cases did I change any setting in the Update UI.

Further notes: The menu item in the browser says "Windows Update" but this
changes to "Microsoft Update" as forms are put onto the screen.