This might be completely unrelated to your problems, but it's a known fact that Ubuntu 9.04 (new xserver + 2.6.28 combined) don't really work well on intel video cards. You can read about that a lot on the web. Much of it can be fixed by upgrading to 2.6.30 (e.g.
http://beranger.org/v3/wordpress/2009/05/04/jaunty-kernel-2630-fixes-the-intel-video/ and further links). Or you can consider switching to Karmic Koala. It's already mostly usable and I've seen live people who did that.
I'm among the unlucky ones too, but gladly I don't use the laptop much except for console stuff and reading emails. Since the laptop is mostly used for work, I didn't risk either of the possible fixes, so I can't give you first-hand info.
Hope this helps.