Today I called Microsoft Tech support.
The rep was in India when it is 11am here it is 1-2am there, the guy was starting his shift.
Nice guy, but it is always a little challenging with the accent and even the phone lines/connection impact the conversation, there was a delay in the time I would say something and then I would hear it echo.
Anyway the rep chatted with me while I was trying to resolve some issue with updated beyond the Windows SP 3 failing. Apparently there are something you can try. I resorted to uninstalling SP3 and reinstalling it and then trying the updates again and it worked.