Can't upgrade Vista to Sp1

So my boss brings in his kids laptop. She can't install her new version of Office for school. Problem is the new version wants at least SP1 on Vista.
Try to instal SP1, no joy.
Updated and ran Super Anti Spyware, Malwarebytes, and AVG.
All came back clean. I don't think the machine is infected.
Doesn't seem to be any drivers that need to be upgraded.
Tried to install in safe mode as well with no luck.
Normally I would just reinstall the OS, but of course she can't find the disks.

Any suggestions on installing the SP would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hello,
See if this knowledge base article helps. You should install update 938371 only.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937287

 

Appreciate the response.
I'll give it a try tomorrow at work and report back with results.

 

Downloaded and tried to install the up update at work today.
No joy.
System responded with "The update does not apply to your system".

Any other thoughts?

 

Are you trying to update to SP1 with the full installer or through Microsoft Update? You may want to see if going through Microsoft update will work. If you are trying to do it through Microsoft update, then try the full installer.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?DisplayLang=en&id=30 32bit

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=21299 64bit

Things to know before you download Windows Vista SP1

 

Most likely, no disks came with it. Instead, it probably had a recovery partition on the hard drive, typically assigned drive letter D. This serves the same purpose as recovery/restore disks that were commonly issued with new computers before manufacturers switched to putting a recovery partition on the hard drive.

Does it have a D drive? If so, how large is it and how full is it? And, what do you see on it? What make and model is that computer?

 

Apologies for not posting back sooner.

Talked to my boss, trying to get him to find out if the kid really does need the latest and greatest version of office. If she does, that's fine, we continue. If she just wanted to upgrade, then she can have it back.
To answer the last post, it's a Dell Laptop, (I'll check the exact model)
Yes, there is a D partition on the drive, and there's an option to restore the computer to it's factory state. If it turns out we need to restore, I may have some questions. Never actually done one before.
Very much appreciate all the help so far.
Thanks