Updated to the latest version, and now instead of getting 4-10 AshWebSv.exe in background, I got at least 13 of them.
slowing my laptop even further, what the hell is going on? Should I perform a clean e-install?
I would say a clean reinstall is a good starting point, though I don't know if Igor's question might be leading in a different direction. e.g. trying to find the cause of the multiple occurrences of ashWebSv.exe rather than treating what is a symptom of the problem.
Download the latest version of avast
http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html and save it to your HDD, somewhere you can find it again. Use that when you reinstall.
Download the avast! Uninstall Utility,
find it here and save it to your HDD.
1. Now uninstall (using add remove programs, if you can't do that start from the next step), reboot.
2. run the avast! Uninstall Utility, reboot. If step 1 failed it may be necessary to run this from safe mode, once complete reboot into normal mode.
3. install the latest version, reboot.