Here is what I would do. Copy all 69 patches plus the contents.xml and contents.xml.sig files to a directory on the ESX host itself or to a VMFS datastore on the SAN. Log into the server via SSH. Change directories to the directory with the patches and run esxupdate -f --test update. This should tell you which patches in the depot will be applied, and with the -f option, all patches in the directory should get applied. Then run esxupdate -f update.
Were you applying a specific update, such as Update 3 or Update 4?