We left off waiting for me to update my installation to see if it has any effect. I upgraded to 7.4.2 a few weeks ago when I moved servers all seemed to go well but I had forgotten about this issue. Today I was with a coworker who is a member in my forum and noticed that his PM indicator was flashing. I told him "you have mail." He replied "Nah, its been like that since I joined." I made a post looking for other members with the same false PM indicator issue.
So what should I try now? 
