stalled windows XP update

My husband left for work a couple hours ago and shut down his computer so it could install an update. It has been going back and forth between 2 screens that say

installing update 1 of 1

do not turn off or unplug your computer;
it will turn off automatically.

while these screens normally show up, this has been going on for hours today. I updated this computer a couple days ago so this update has to be recent. Is there a huge XP update out there recently or do I have a problem? He is using XP service pack3.

If I force the computer to shut down by holding down the power button, what do I do next? Try to restart in safe mode and do a system restore and try to download the update again? I have never forced a computer to shut down in the middle of a windows update before.

Thanks for any help.

Edit:
I went ahead and forced it to shut down. It restarted normally and is working well so far. Windows update said the last update done was a week ago and it was successful. There were no failed updates showing. There were no important updates needed, just a couple optional ones. I don't know what was really going on, but it seems fine now.

Maybe Santa is trying to get me to buy my hubby a new computer for Christmas?

 

I, Santa, order you to get your husband a new computer.

 

Or a new husband!

 

@Shyster1 After 25 years together, I think I have the BEST HUBBY in the whole wide world. After all, he has managed to put up with all my teasing.

 

I was only kidding - but still, that's very nice of you to say, I can only hope that my wife will say the same in 20 years.

In terms of the apparently failed update, if you wanted to give it another try, you could either go to Microsoft's download site (if you know the name of the specific update that was supposed to be installing) to download and install the update manually from there, or else go to the Microsoft update website and see if you can pick it up again from there.

 

If you are using IE7 an important critical update was sent out yesterday to provide a stop gap to a much publicized security issue. You should make sure it got installed.

"Windows XP Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP (KB960714) Wednesday, December 17, 2008"

 

Shyster1, of course I knew you were teasing. I just think one should never pass up the chance to say something nice about the people you love.

Deeastman, Thanks for giving me the update number. At first I could not find it. It was not on the list of updates that I had on the computer and it was not shown as an update that I could download. It was not even showing up as a failed update. I had to do a system restore to yesterday and the check for updates again in order to find it. It installed fine this time around.

Thanks everyone.