[xubuntu] Laptop off, screen on!

Hi all,

A curio. Nothing urgent as the machine has now gone to a new home, but just wondering if anyone has seen this before or has any ideas.

My wife just got a new computer and is gifting the old one to a friend who had hers stolen. Nice. So I installed Xubuntu-core 16.04 LTS on the old machine (Compaq 610 from memory), all runs beautifully and everything worked 'out of the box'. Except ...

When I shutdown the computer, it shuts down, but not the screen or the power or wireless button lights! The screen just locks half way through spiing a circle on the Xubuntu close down screen and that's it. If I press and hold the power button it switches off everything.

Out of curiousity, I shut the laptop lid at this point to see what would happen. Indeed, the screen switched off, but more surprisingly, when I opened the lid again, the machine is off! No power or wireless light, screen off, machine totally off, as should be.

I spent an hour hunting around for this with no joy. Didn't have the time to go any further with it as was being passed on today.

Everything else works and this little glitch is acceptable, but anyone witnessed/experienced/fixed this in the past? If there is a known workaround I'll pass it on (the new owner's partner tus out to be a Ubuntu user so perhaps he can help at their end).

Thanks in advance.