Lock Button Not Working

[smadaus]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix this. I fell asleep on my phone and woke up in the middle of the night and the touch screen was acting up. The action box that pops up when you hold down the lock button kept coming up and then the screen would go black. It did this several times and I finally disconnected the battery cause the touch screen wouldn't allow me to actually pick one. Anyway my lock button doesnt work anymore and I was wondering if anyone else had this problem. I understand it could be a hardware problem and in that case I would need to get a new phone. But if someone else has heard of this to be a software problem and knows a fix please let me know what to do.