Resident Protection Log - strange?

[PatP3005]

My system has been acting "weird" for the past few days. (Mainly a lot of "program not respondings") I always have Avast running so I wasn't too worried about viruses. Just did a scan and it didn't find anything - 3 files that couldn't be scanned, but I'm not too concerned about that. I've deleted cookies, temp files, etc. But then I started looking at the reports and logs in Avast. The Resident Protection Log goes along saying 'resident protection' used and gives a start date. On 8/12 it says "'resident protection' used, started on 8/12 3:13:28. Task stopped: Friday, 8/12 3:17:38. Run-time was 4 minutes, 10 seconds." Two entries later it says: 'task 'resident protection' used, started on 8/14 6:43:11 pm VPS: 0532-6, 8/13/05.' Next line says: "Task stopped: Thursday, August 18, 2005 9:22:03 am, Run time was 3 day(s) 14 hour(s) 38 minute(s) 52 second(s).' Following entries are 4 day runtime, then on 9/11 runtime was 9 days. 9/14, task stopped; runtime 2 days. Then same day, 9/14, task stopped, run-time 8 minutes. The last task stopped was on 9/29 and runtime was 4 days.

First off, I obviously don't understand what this program is doing. Are these run-times normal? I'm running Avast4 Home, Windows XP SP2. I rarely turn my computer off, so I'm wondering if that is what the task stopped is referring to - the times I DO shut the computer off.

Thanks for any insight.

[Lisandro]

Are these run-times normal?

No they aren't.
The run-time should be all the time you have your computer on (unless you disable one provider or shut down avast! protection).

I rarely turn my computer off, so I'm wondering if that is what the task stopped is referring to - the times I DO shut the computer off.

The stops could be just this: ending of the protection.

Do you have any other antivirus in your system?
Did you run a full avast! scanning? What about spywares?

[PatP3005]

I only have Avast for virus protection. I have SpySweeper always running, and Spybot runs once a week. I actually solved the "not respondings" by following some instructions in another forum. Had to make some changes to my Registry. I did that on Friday and my runtime on Friday was 30 minutes. Hopefully everything is fixed now. Can you tell me what the resident protection log is telling me? Does "resident protection" start and stop itself? I thought Avast ran continually. Thanks for your help.

[Lisandro]

Does "resident protection" start and stop itself? I thought Avast ran continually. Thanks for your help.

avast does run continuously... it's starting and something is stopping it.
Maybe another antivirus driver not properly uninstalled, maybe a conflict (for instance, with your firewall...).
You should give us more info to guess 

[PatP3005]

I know to run only one virus protection program. I don't open attachments if I'm not expecting them. Just checked the Internet Security on Control Panel and it's happy - everything is "on." I don't know what else to tell you. My prime suspect is this. I don't know if this is nationwide, or just locally, but the BP stations have been selling "digicups." On the bottom of the cup is a mini cd which loads eMusic Download Manager. You are supposed to be able to download 100 mp3's for free using this little disc. Then you subscribe or quit. I HATE these things. I know better, that free is never free, but I figured with bp involved it would be safe. If I had to guess, I would say my problems started after loading this. Has anyone else said anything about these discs? They're everywhere, so I can't be the only one. Other than that I can't think of anything I've done differently. Thanks again for any help anyone can offer.