Problems with Avast Free ver. 7

Today, I restarted my computer, and I was currently using Avast Free ver. 6. Upon startup, a screen came up to install version 7, so I did. There was never any installation screen. All that has happened is the Avast icon in my toolbar keeps ‘blinking’, and the same is happening to my cursor, showing the hourglass icon. It has also taken up alot of memory in my processes in task manager. I have tried to uninstall and reinstall Avast, but this did no good. I used a Restore Point, which took it back to version 6, but some of my shields were down, until I installed the new version. I did this, and again, it’s doing the same thing. It’s causing my laptop to overheat because of the processes. I have Windows Vista Home Edition, 32 bit, and I believe SP 1. How can I fix this problem?

I also need to mention that Avast will not open up while it’s doing this. I started my computer in safe mode, and when I clicked on Avast, I got the box that said Avast has stopped working and will close. This has not be related to virus definition updates, but to version 7. For now, until I have an answer to my problems, I’m going to have to uninstall Avast to keep my computer working. I do not wish to stop using Avast, as I’ve used it for awhile now, and have had no problems at all up until now with version 7. I also need to add that, when I used the Restore Point, and it went back to version 6, whenever I restarted my computer, the version 7 download screen came up, and it would not let me exit out of it to continue using version 6 until the bugs have been worked out of 7. Hopefully I’ll get an answer to my problem, so I can continue using Avast.