Remember when I mentioned I was having trouble with the time on my system and I thought I needed a new CMOS batter? Well, I was wrong. Don't know what the trouble was, but it's not hardware. I spent 20 minutes on the phone to Dell's technical staff. Great service, I have to admit. I thought they'd charge me seeing as the machine is 3+ years old.
I guess the problem was in Windows. It seems to have gone away after I tried something I read about getting rid of all electrical charge inside a laptop when it was off. Maybe that did it or maybe not, but for now all's well.
