JM,
I don't think it's SP3, as I have that installed on the PC with Avast 5 and SpyBot - Tarq, my SpyBot runs with all the bells and whistles turned on.
I don't run a SW firewall, though.
Is it possible that your Windows Firewall is running in addition to Ashampoo?
Do you have Data Execution Prevention (DEP) set for more than the default essential Windows operating system programs and services? I would have thought that DEP would then have stopped AVAST completely, but you can never be sure with Windows!
SD