Hi Ian,
Thanks for your reply. For some reason things appear to have somehow rectified theirselves. LAst night i couldn't get any any microsoft updates but today it seems to have updated somehow

.
Last night i spent some time cleaning up in safe mode and dumped some stuff i didn't really need and the problem is now gone. What i have noticed is that all my previous system restore points have disappeared except for one which was done yesterday at 17:27. I wasn't even using the pc at this time.
Now i'm a little unsure what to do next but i would like to make a Vista back up CD. I don't know how to do this either so it's study time.....again,lol.
Regarding the code 164 issue, it hasn't cropped up yet but when it does i will send ya screenshot.
Here's a screen shot i got online today of microsoft error codes with 164 and its message.
Any suggestions on the back up cd would be appreciated.