Windows Vista updater doesn't work, need help

I have a HP Pavilion laptop that runs on the first version of Windows Vista. And recently I can't manually or automatically update any updates where it just shows that it's checking for updates but never actually does the update from Microsoft (see screenshot)



So I tried to install the Windows Vista updater and again it keeps showing that it's checking for updates but never does anything, even though I let it run for 5 hrs (see screenshot)


Any suggestions?

This issue had been ongoing for over a year now:

http://www.vistax64.com/windows-updates/303992-windows-update-just-seems-hang-while-checking.html

Its a long thread. You might be best starting a little way from the end.