Is Avast blocking Dell update?

Hi

This morning I switched on my Dell 15R running Win 8.1 and Avast Free and went away to make coffee.

When I returned there was a message from Avast that disappeared almost immediately, but it was something to the effect that something had tried to disable Avast.

Then I got a message from Dell update saying it couldn’t do an update because it could not connect to the internet. I checked the internet connection and it was fine.

Is there some conflict between Avast and Dell update, and if so how can it be resolved?

Thanks

Be Free

Dennis