I am running SL5.3 on a Thinkpad x60 laptop.  I don't run a screensaver,
just xset to blank the screen after a period of inactivity.  With the lap
top
running on ac power, the screen goes blank as it should, but when I press
 a
key to bring it back, it is only about half as bright as it was before
turning off.  (/proc/acpi/ibm/brightness says it's level 3 vs. level 7). 

Searching the web, I've found people blaming this kind of behaviour on
gnome-power-manager and hal, so for purposes of this posting, I've killed

both of those, and the problem remains.  Any ideas?

Thanks.