I'm happy to report that MBAM v 3.8.3 installed with no problems on my husband's laptop. Now all 4 computers are running the latest version. Only 1 computer caused me many headaches - my desktop. The only thing different I did on that one was check for a new version. On the other three, I waited until I got the popup about a new version has been downloaded and is waiting to be installed.
So perhaps in the future, I'll just wait for a popup and not go searching.