Q: Lion blackout with screensaver, radio, apps running, beach ball...

PROBLEM: About an hour ago, my mid-2009 MacBook Pro, 2.26GHz, blacked out while I was attempting to awaken it from the screensaver. A few things to note:

While the screensaver was on, I had the following running:

1.) Streaming radio from a website via Safari.

2.) iCal, Terminal, and Mail (I always have them running)

WHAT WENT DOWN AND HOW: Anyways, when I touched the trackpad to awaken the screen, the screen went black, and the only thing that was NOT BLACK was the spinning beach ball. After waiting a while for it to stop, I turned the machine over, unscrewed the back panel, and plugged the battery. I reinserted the plug, replaced the back panel, and turned the machined back on. The screen was STILL BLACKED OUT, with only the beach ball showing. So again, I took off the back panel, unplugged the battery, and then put everything back again. I tried resetting the System Management Controller (SMC), but the power plug's LED indicator did not change color from green to orange, so I know that was not the problem. Then, I pressed and held down the power button. While that was happening, the sleep indicator light came on, and after about 2 seconds starting blinking rapidly. After letting it blink rapidly for about one second, I released the power button and the machine restarted. This time the machine booted as it normally would and everything was fine from then on.

SOLUTION: Hard restart via holding the power button down until it blinks rapidly. I do not know WHY I thought of this, but it worked, and obviously Apple placed such safety net there for a reason.

I am posting this so if someone else has this problem they can read this and see if it helps.

Swingman24