Thought so, that is the root of the problem! Mac OS is EXTREMELY secure and it does not benefit by using any antivirus, cleaning or any other third party "maintenance" apps. If simply kept up-to-date and otherwise left alone Mac OS will remain stable and secure.
You indicated you uninstalled AVG, however did you use the developers uninstall instructions to do so? If so that is good, if you used another method you will need to re-install and then uninstall the per the developers instructions!
I located this youtube , please look it over and it should help out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UfhaE3CMHM