Red Circle on Avast Icon

I have checked past posts and replies and have performed what was suggested. i.e. removed all traces of other virus checkers (literally), safe started and used the Avast uninstall utility to remove Avast and start over, etc.
Nothing seems to have an effect as I still have the icon with that red circle on it.
Does this mean that the program is not protecting my machine?
I also keep getting the box reading - “The AAVM subsystem detected a RPC error”

I am running XP Professional 2002 SP2 on a Dell machine with Intel Pentium M at 1.6 Gh and 1 G RAM.
I use DSL, no proxy, with a firewall.
Email client is Outlook. There is no other security software present.
The Version of Avast is 4.8.1195 (downloaded from your site) and the VPS file is version 080512-0
I sure hope you can assist as this looks like a great program!
DJS

Can you give us some more information about the previous antivirus program and the method of removal please?

The previous program was Bell Sympatico’s Security Services. This is normally a good program but their latest update was a disaster for my machine. I had to totally remove it using the available Windows engine plus some of the Bell programs to TOTALLY remove the thing.
It is gone.

Thanks for that update, not a product I have heard of before but others here may have.

The error you report is usually indicative of the remains of another security product interfering with avast.

This is certainly still possible. i have done all that I know to remove any traces of these programs and even forayed into the registry entries and removed any mention of them. This exercise was a real treat! Talk about fear.