strange keyboard issue

hello, good people. this is not a new issue, but it's a continually annoying one, so i thought i'd bring it up in case someone knows an easy fix. i am here at the office running a thinkpad in a docking station, with external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. the keyboard is attached via a usb adapter and mostly works fine. when i use a plain old bog standard keyboard, all is well but for the fact that every so often, unpredictably as far as i can tell, it stops accepting input and the keyboard lights flash for a couple seconds, then it works again just fine. any characters typed in during that period, though, are lost. this is not a problem when i use a trusty old ibm model m keyboard. here, the issue is different. as long as i'm in console mode, no X or framebuffer or anything running, all is well. but when X starts, no keyboard input is accepted unless and until i unplug the keyboard and plug it back in. then all is well. this is consistent across several model m keyboards i have tried, so it's not a keyboard or cord issue. something happens when it goes into graphical mode that makes it think it doesn't have a keyboard. i suspect that there is a configuration switch somewhere that will fix this, but i can't find it. anyone know? thanks, and i hope this wasn't terribly o/t. -- dep The shortest distance between you and great fingerstyle guitar playing? The new instructional DVDs from Marjorie Thompson, available now at www.MarjorieThompson.com