Automatic Upgrade Issues

Having some “issues” doing the automatic updates to 2.8.4

This is what I get:

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.8.4.zip
Unpacking the core update
Could not copy file: XXXXX/httpdocs/blog/wp-content/upgrade/core/wordpress/wp-comments-post.php
Installation Failed

I was able to find a way to change file permissions to 777 just to see if that was the cause – no luck.

I tried some solutions offered up here like nuking the upgrade folder/conents – didn’t work either.

Other than a manual install what do you recommend for someone with limited computer tech experience especially with mysql databases and the such.

*wordpress.com isn’t an option either 🙂 I want the blog on my own domain.

Thanks in advance