Here are the culprits:
1) disable "Modal box Popup" settings from Avatarep settings;
2) inc/plugins/avatarep.php, line 726, find:
$user['avatar'] = '<div class="avatarep_fd">' . $user['avatar'] . '</div>';
Replace with:
$user['avatar'] = "<a data-uid='{$user['uid']}' href='{$avatar['profilelink']}'>" . $user['avatar'] . '</a>';
3) inc/plugins/avatarep.php, lines 704-706, find:
}else{
$user['avatar'] = "<a href=\"". $avatar['profilelink'] . "\" title=\"".$user['avatarep_title']."\">".$user['avatar']."</a>";
}
Replace with:
}
Basically the last step is just a removal of everything after "else".