MySQL taking too long

[Shabam]

Ok I'm trying to run a php script written by someone else, not me, and it's
getting stuck in a particular step. Actually it isn't getting stuck per se,
but the browser is, because it's taking forever to return the results back
to the browser.

Here's the line that's responsible for this:

$users = $db->query_return_array("SELECT * FROM user");

It's getting stuck because in my database I have over 60,000 records. Now,
I'm just wanting to get over this step (it's an upgrade script), not looking
for fancy proper methods of php coding.

What alternative ways are there for me to prevent the browser from timing
out? I'm guessing some way of looping through the records, and updating the
client with simple update characters to prevent it from timing out.

Thanks in advance. :)