the issue could also be on the Microsoft side... test by going into "advanced options" then if you change the builds from "slow" to "fast" does that remove the update block?
Thanks for the reply's people but I was on with MS chat last night for 1.5 hrs and with remote desktop and they couldn't fix the problem so I did a clean install half hour ago and all is well now. updates working. Just need to install my apps/programs and have a play about with this 10041 so far so good.