Hi
I'm highly frustrated too as I've been 'fighting' with this issue on my 2012 HP Mini for 3 weeks! I performed a 'clean install' of Windows 7 Premium directly onto my new SSD and using the key provided, I activated it. No problem. Although it's now Much faster than with Windows 7 Starter (I increased the memory to 4GB at the same time as installing the SSD) I can't get the MS Microsoft updates to download & install.
Ironically, it DOES install updates that are 'brought down' with MS upgrades (e.g. Moving from IE8 to IE11) so there is a short list of installed updates. I've tried all the 'FixIt' s that MS provide for Windows Updates trouble, but none of them have fixed it. I've even used a program to download all the updates I need...