Automatic update has not worked in months but just didnt worry about it til I had to download all those critical updates at once. Now im trying to figure out why its not working,I have enabled it under system properties. Is there something that should be running or start at boot that I may have disabled or "worse" deleted? Also norton antivirus automatic update has not worked around the same time windows update has quit working.

Try a 'quick' reinstall WindowsXP and keep all your current installed applications and settings: This is how. Start WindowsXP Go to the location of your source files [the I386 folder on the XP CD or a copy on your HDD if you made one]. Run WINNT32 /unattend I've often need to do this to repair something that had gotten corrupted and didn't want to do a clean install.