When I tried Ubuntu 11, I hated it because when I closed laptop lid, it crashed. I changed to Linux Mint 10 and was happy to see that changed. However, I now updated to Mint 11 and I have the same issue.

So I made some investigation on it and disabling VBlank on OpenGL in compiz-settings-manager works for most people. Not for me, though. This worked:

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/lid_ac "nothing"
Note: Almost nobody in the Web knows this and I found it on the last comment of a very hidden page, so thought I should share it.

I have this problem as well. And sadly I haven't found out how to fix this either. I'm actually about to try your solution now. Hopefully it works for me, and I hope you figure out what is wrong soon!

edit: nope, didn't work for me either. sadly. actually I'll ask my friend about this, he might know how to fix this.

So I made some investigation on it and disabling VBlank on OpenGL in compiz-settings-manager works for most people.

Did you try that too?

These problems are mostly laptop/pc model specific, and sometimes its hard to find the cause.
David, if you give me your model, I might find a solution.

Well, thats not really a solution as it still will crash if you suspend