Originally reported at:
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/481312

The underlying problem here is that upower always reports lid closed for these particular laptops. (Upower report coming...) What makes this worse is that g-p-m initially assumes the lid is open, so it performs the lid closed action the first time it notices that it's closed.

WORKAROUND: change lid-closed action to Blank Screen in Power Management properties.

FIX is something like:

--- src/gpm-button.c
+++ src/gpm-button.c
@@ -322,8 +322,11 @@
 	button->priv->last_button = NULL;
 	button->priv->timer = g_timer_new ();
 
-	button->priv->lid_is_closed = FALSE;
 	button->priv->client = dkp_client_new ();
+	// sometimes lid is closed now, don't assume it's open (LP #481312)
+	g_object_get (button->priv->client,
+		      "lid-is-closed", &button->priv->lid_is_closed,
+		      NULL);
 	g_signal_connect (button->priv->client, "changed",
 			  G_CALLBACK (gpm_button_client_changed_cb), button);

So far my patch is untested, but I'll post here if it does fix the issue.