There are a number of problems which have been identified for various laptop models. Please scan through this list before you finish compiling the kernel to see if your hardware is affected by any of the following problems. You may also want to use this as a trouble shooting guide after installing your system if you are still having problems.
Known issues for the 2.4 kernel include:
DPMS (Energy Star) features try to suspend the laptop
Known issues for the 2.6 kernel include:
acpi_power_off hangs
touch pad/mouse or keyboard freezes