Trouble with OS X update

First, I am a brand new Mac user (one day so far) with a new 24" iMac so please be patient because I have been a PC user for the past 15 years.

I went to install the iLife 09 upgrade that came with my Mac and it states that I needed to update OS X... so I ran the software update and it installed 6 different updates. When it got to the OS X update it said that I had to restart the computer to finish...it went to a blue screen for a brief moment and then came back on and said something like configuring software. It showed progress for just a small fraction of the bar and it stopped...I waited for thirty min. and it didnt move. I had to turn the computer off and it came back on like usual. I have tried this two other times with the same results.

Is this a common problem? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,

Heath+

What update is it getting stuck on? Perhaps you can install the update w/o software update (downloading the package manually).

It is getting stuck on the 668 MB 10.5.6 update.

I went to the apple web page/downloads and found two different 10.5.6 updates: the 668 MB and a 372 MB...they both are described as the same, but the smaller one says staff pick, so I am downloading that one now and will try it.

They're are different.

What version of OS X are you running right now? If you are running anything pre 10.5.5, you need the 668 MB combo update. If you are running 10.5.5, you can run the smaller 372MB update.

ok, I checked and it is 10.5.4. I will download the larger one and try that.

Yeah, if you have 10.5.4, you need the larger combo update. The combo update is a kind of "all previous versions update" while the smaller update is more of a "update previous version only" update.

is there a difference between downloading it from apple, and using "software update" from the menu bar/dock or whatever it is called (still learning the nomenclature)?

Alright that worked. Thanks vansmith for the help.