Update stays stuck at checking for the latest updates. Its been there for
about an hour now.
How long should that take, can you force it to go to next step? I suspect
not. So what can I do to get updates?

A friend dropped off a sony laptop with w2k and said it wouldn't update.
I cleaned it thoroughly and tried.  It is 49 critical updates behind.  It
downloads
them but install fails.

   I am getting following error trying to update an W2K server with
security patches:
-file srequired to use windows update are no longer registered or installed
on your computer, to continue-register or reinstall the files

I formatted my system with Windows 2000 professional..
I installed SP4 after that..and anti virus software
Then i tried to update my system..there were around 50 odd updates....
but during the updation...my system reboot automatically......