Comment 2 for bug 289444

Same problem here on a Dell Vostro 1400 with an Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS card. The problem occurred when I plugged in the power supply, prompting the display to change to maximum brightness. The brightness can still be altered by the brightness hotkeys, but the brightness display does not disappear from the screen. Since it is always on top of other windows, it is an obstacle to working on this laptop. Attempting to add the brightness applet to the panel while this display is on the screen also fails silently. Killing the gnome-power-manager process results in the display disappearing from the screen, and the brightness applet appears in the panel. When this process is restarted the brightness display functions normally.