Hi icethenet,
Welcome to the forum.
Often times when someone is having difficulty with an AV it is due to other things. So let's trouble shoot to see what is going on. First I need to know the following:
1. What is your OS, 32 or 64-bit, RAM?
2. What version of Avast did you install? 5.0.594?
3. What product of Avast did you install? Trial (30-days), Free, Pro, AIS?
4. What other security software do you
currently have or did you have
in the past on this machine including antivirus (AV), firewall (FW), and other security programs (resident and on-demand)? If they were in the past, how did you remove them (the vendor's uninstaller's tool or another way)?
5. Are your MS Updates (if you have Windows) current?
6. Are your software updates current?
7. Are the Avast definitions (updates) current?
8. When was the last time you did any kind of scan in Avast, and if so what kind of scan was it?
I'm sorry for all the questions, but this will help identify issues that are causing problems. Thank you.