Tom,   Sorry for the delay, work and a birthday i n the family can slow you down.   Try the fix I have written at...   Windows Updates fail to install    Go to... C:\Program Files  and make sure that the folder for Open Office is not there.   Make a system restore point.   Download CCleaner Run the registry fix. Save a backup of the registry before you click the fix all selected.     Rick
I started with a new installation of Windows XP Media Center Edition on an older  Dell Inspiron  E105.   I updated it at Windows update and all was great with it.   I eventually decided that I was tired of the warning message balloons  and turned on automatic updates.  Daily, after updating, it would start to do strange things like stalling or freezing up.  One day it forgot that it could connect to the internet through the ethernet cable that had worked perfectly until then and I had to turn on the wireless.  Then it would refuse to shut down or start halfway up and freeze for several days so I finally deleted the partition tonight and am reinstalling XP.   Has anyone heard of Windows Update systematically destroying Windows XP a little bit each day?  Could there be a different cause of OS degradation?   Mind you, to my knowledge,  this does not occur if Automatic Updates is turned off.
XP Ethernet suddenly will not work, but WI-FI is fine, (same router)