New Install 5.0 AIS. Firewall not working. Service not working

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I’m on XP SP3. Have been on free 4.8 but decided to pay for 5.0 AIS. Not sure it was a good idea at this point.

Install said it was successful but on reboot got a blue screen and had to start with last known good config. When I got in I noticed white cross and “system is not secured” message on icon and nothing seemed to be working. Clicked “Fix” and it reported “The following component could not be started: Firewall”. Forum advised repair through Control Panel and Repair which I did but it said I couldn’t “Firewall driver couldn’t be installed. The installation will proceed without the avast! Firewall component” (this error was not reported in the original installation). Installation continued but still nothing was working. I also got a message like “avast service is not active”.

I have since used the clean unistall in safe mode and reinstalled with the latest download but same result (even the blue screen). Can anyone help with a futher suggestion?

2

Any other previous firewall would be a good start.

3

I had Windows Firewall on the first time I installed but I’ve had it turned off since after seeing this indicated as a possible issue in a forum post.

If this is a problem shouldn’t the install messages or instructions highlight this?

Reinstalled 4.8 - no worries. Turned off Windows Firewall, manually uninstall ed 4.8. Installed 5.0 fresh. Same problem - blue screen on restart, etc.

I’ve returned to good old 4.8 again. No problems with that! But I need to know whether to cancel my payment for 5.0. Advice would be very much appreciated.