[19:41:52] <aclark> jaraco: oh about your laptop if you can reproduce it take it in to the apple store genius bar; they run diags on it, etc. short of that i think you can also try resetting nvram or pram or something like that. i had one that did what you describe a few years ago.
[20:51:24] <jaraco> aclark: that's a good idea. I did post something to the Apple user forums, but got no reply.
[20:54:15] <aclark> jaraco: you basically have to weigh how big a PITA it is, vs. taking it into the shop which is also a PITA :-0