The problem I had with Ashsimpl invalid page faulting is fixed.
I went to this page at Microsoft’s site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/downloads/list/dataaccess.asp
I downloaded and installed Jet40SP7_9xNT.exe (I had Jet40-SP3 previously). See http://support.microsoft.com/?KBID=282010
I also downloaded and installed MDAC_TYP.exe v2.8 (previously I had v2.7) after installing Jet40SP7. See http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6c050fe3-c795-4b7d-b037-185d0506396c&DisplayLang=en
I rebooted between each pack installation.
Result is no more problems 
and now there is no need to change the “Database=ODBC” line in the file “…\Avast4\Data\Avast4.ini”
Everything seems to be working sweet 8)
Once again, many thanks to Vlk 
Cheers!