Um YoKenny I tried SP3 but it totaly removed the quick start and stopped all access to the internet.
That was 2 or 3 years back and this SP2 PC has been just fine until this Avast update.
FYI Others have had SP3 problemss too
"Many XP users, including Steve Gibson, have found that installing XP's Service Pack 3 breaks their machines. Also, the official advice from Tech Support of this writer's OEM (Toshiba) is *not* to install SP3, and they do *not* support it." forums.informaction.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=4873
Thnks Mr twinky, I looked at the links in your link.
I had already tried unistalling Avast, then ran its removal tool, then cleanafterme from systeminternals then reinstalled Avast. theres a few reboots in there too.
I have the same problem as AnonAnon and the PC works with the all shields disabled.
And it also runsfine if just that top file shield is stopped and the rest below it are still on.
And after reading the links from Mr twinky, I guess I will install an older version of Avast for now. :'(
BTW My setup is similar but my Avast AV auto-updates, I have Comodo Firewall at ver 4.1.150349.920, SuperAntiSpyware ver 4.26.1002 (I don't run SASW too often) and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware ver 1.50.1.1100. Also Im running on old 2.2Ghz P4 home build with XP Home 2002 SP2.