Vista hotfix trouble "update is not valid for your system"

i'm having some trouble with the hotfixes which you can download from the
microsoft site. I'll start at the beginning. I just got myself a new usb
stick (Freecom 8gb). It is vista compatible so i thought it would work
without problems. I was wrong. Vista would locate the stick and even find
drivers but when it got to the installing part it gives an error message that
something went wrong. Vista did found a solution for this. I had to download
a hot fix update for my (IM SURE, DOUBLECHECKED) 32bit vista system. When i
downloaded the hotfix and tried to install it i got the message, "the update
is not valid for your system". So like i allways do i check the internet for
solutions but this time i couldn't find an awnser. Most forums say that you
get this message when the update/hotfix is already installed. so i looked at
my installed updates but couldnt find the update that i tried to install
before. So that was not the solution to my problem. Then i started searching
for awnsers on the microsoft site. I found 2 solutions but unlucky as i am
they didn't help. The first one was to change the msconfig so that vista
would start with nothing but te standard windows applications and services.
Didn't work. The other one was a 2nd hotfix. Only this was zipped and the
password that was given to get to te update didn't work for me. I have no
idea what i could do to solve this problem so i can get on with the next. plz
help