With fast user switching, when I login, 7 switches between the login screen and by desktop with a fade to black and back transition.

You would think that the logout would be the similar but in reverse. What it seems to do is fade out and back to the background of the login but with the words "logging out" displayed and a busy cursor.

The screwy part is that it then abruptly blanks the screen for ~5 sec and when it returns the login screen is visible.

I called M$, They tell me this is normal even on a clean install test machine.
The rep did admit that there is a problem where for some users the screen goes blank and does not come back.

Strange, my Win7 machine doesn't show the "logging out" message. It immediately blanks the screen(s) and then shows the login screen. That all happens in under a second.

When logging off mine first fades to black, then shows "logging off" for a split of a second and a second later the logon screen appears. When switching users the screen goes black immediately without fading and then it shows the logon screen.

Cheers,
-Peter

Andy, when you say blink, are you referring to the fade on/out, or is it and abrupt change to the login screen.

Would the animation settings affect this?

Only to eliminate the first fade, not the second blanking.

This shows the double blank. You kind of need to ignore the flare from the auto iris of the iSight camera.