I would have been happy if the slowdown was my only problem. All my apps started existing unexpectedly with the "Send report" dialog.
At first I had no idea what caused it, so I did a clean XP SP2 Pro install, with all 90 odd updates. Installed all my stock apps as usual, until installing Avast 4.8.
Everything worked great on the clean install till I installed Avast 4.8. I removed it, and smooth sailing since.
By the way, I also had that failing in one or other module in my event viewer, the one ending with a 5.
I really hope this gets resolved soon before my 30day Kaspersky runs out.