Thanks everyone.
The computer just would not come on at all.
No blue screen, just the motor running and nothing, not even an attempt to boot.
After putting in the company disc and going back to Factory Settings everything went swimmingly.
I was having over 100 updates a day, well, it's old, not particularly worried about that.
Then on the third day I took the IE9 update and from then on I couldn't use the browser. My home site came up good as you please, but I couldn't go to any other site.
Emails worked, but that was all.
THEN came that peculiar update that sent it into the cycle of
Configuring update 3 of 3 0% complete
close down re boot
All pretty standard stuff, but the same message for the same update just kept repeating itself never getting past o% complete.
I gave it two hours, then turned off.
When I turned on, the same cycle began again.
I went back to Factory Settings for the second time, and I'm here, and everything is working fine so far, but I am only on the second day of updates.
I did wonder if, as it was just after IE 9 that it went barmy, that was what caused it, as I have said, it's a very old 32 bit computer, as cranky as its owner.
So far so good. Nothing lost, because I restored from backup on the desktop hard drive.
Thanks for your kindness,
Paula