Comment 30 for bug 269253

Edward D,
  This is the behavior that I've seen on my T60p also. I dont have windows, and can verify that the cold boot to linux will fix the problem. I'm not sure that a reboot won't fix it some small percentage of the time, but usually when I found it stuck like this I'd power of, wait a bit and power back on.
  So, other than sympathy, I can offer you a suggestion. It *seems* fixed for me in 2.6.27-11-generic (from intrepid-proposed). I also have a Thinkpad SL500 that would exhibit this problem also, and since I've upgraded (maybe a week ago) I've not seen it again.