Severe windows update Problem

Ok guys ever since September Windows update has just flat out stopped working. The little icon shows up on the task bar but nothing is happening. When I go to windows update in my programs it just shows up with a blank screen, so I can't even figure what the error is. A couple of times Windows update has worked: it will check for updates and go to the downloading stage, but it will stay on 0% without me being able to stop the program. My only option there is to restart the computer. I am pretty sure the error is due to one of the updates that was obtained in early September but, as I have stated, most of the time I can't get windows update to even show up. So there's no checking the list of downloaded updates. I have tried everything I can think of over the past few months and looked on almost every forum I could find for a solution. Most of the "answers" I find seem to be either specifically for XP. Please, tech savvies everywhere, help me out. Operating System: Vista HOme Premium 32bit I am not sure if this really tells you guys much, but if you need more info, don't hesitate to ask.