For the benefit of those dealing with this problem, here's a workaround that seems to work for my situation and allow the updater to function without freezing: Temporarily, quit Malwarebytes (or any other anti-virus/anti-malware program) and turn off the Windows Defender firewall (or any other firewall). Do "Check for Updates" and the updater will complete and either install any available updates or it will report that the program is up to date.
Larry
