Comment 3 for bug 1081819

For what it's worth, I'm having the exact same problem, but using crunchbang, not ubuntu. I have an AMD Athlon II Neo K325 processor, and I've had the same problem with crunchbang waldorf and statler (based on debian wheezy and squeezy).

I've isolated the problem with my current setup (64-bit waldorf) -- it only shows up after a reboot if the computer was put to sleep at sometime during the previous session. So:

Power up, do stuff, power down, power up -- no problem.
Power up, do stuff, sleep, wake, do more stuff, power down, power up -- problem

The problem is just as described -- grub fails to load, just a solid cursor in the upper left corner, followed by a blinking cursor. A quick touch to the power button will make the computer power off, and ctrl-alt-delete will make the computer reboot. However, the problem won't be resolved unless I either pull the battery or boot into some live session. Pulling the battery has always fixed this for me.

Very strange.