Start Menu Help and Support

I am running Windows XP Professional and all was good for a while but suddenly, about a week ago, the Help and Support button and Windows Update site both stopped working.

If I do the ‘Start’and click on ‘Help and Support’ nothing happens.

Somewhere near the same time the Windows Update site stopped responding.

I cannot say for sure that the two are connected – one may have quit before the other.

I seem to remember a way to reset the Update site but I am totally baffled as to why the Help and Support stopped working.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give on either of these two issues.