Are you on dial-up? I had the exact same problem and I am on dial-up. I called the playonline number and they told me that they were working on the problem. So there is nothing you can do at the moment to fix the problem that I am aware of. What I did to get around the problem was to go to a friend's house who has a broadband connection and get the update there. After that you can play without problems. Try that if you are on dial-up, if not, I don't know what you can do.