disabled windows firewall
Don't do that. avast is an antivirus only, not a firewall.
uninstalled norton av yesterday
i've used the norton uninstall tool and used my activation key that i got by email, i still get the same thing.
I suggest an installation from the scratch:
1. Uninstall avast from Control Panel first.
2. Boot.
3. Download the latest version of
Avast Uninstall and use it for complete uninstallation.
4. Boot.
5. Install again the latest
avast! version.
6. Boot.
7. Check and post the results.