Hi Charley..I have had the same problem on and off for about 5 months now..Mine actually started the *blinking* after installing a new Modem..Tried everything,reinstalled windows,checked for parasites,virus,trojans,you name it,i have done it..PC is clean of all..Mine doesnt do it all the time,may go for days,weeks even,but it always starts again,and its no way i have found to stop it..Ive checked to see whats running in the background,anmd nothing except what needs to be there..Seems this one is a big MYSTERY.Been to tech shop and they couldnt find anything either..Has frustrated me til now i just grin and bare it..seems its not going away..I click:ctrl/alt/delete and then click cancel,and it stops,sometimes after a while it will start again and then have to go offline and come back and never know when its gonna start up again..Truly is a aggrevating problem.Maybe one day will find the reason for it.if you do please post back and let me know,thank you..By the way the guys at the tech shop have tried every brand of modem and it does it with all of them,so possibly not the new modem,but thats when it started,(after modem went bad and had to install a new one.)Good luck.Hope you find the answer..