Macbook Pro has a tendency to freeze up when not level

I have a mid-2009 Macbook Pro, running OS X 10.8.2. I've encountered somewhat of a unique problem that I haven't been able to find a solution to:
Apparent Problem:
When my Macbook is tilted (e.g. sitting on my lap, on an unlevel surface, etc.), it has a tendency to freeze up. Normally I keep it on my desk, but as soon as I put it on my lap it has a tendency to freeze up until I place it back on a level surface, at which point it resumes behaving normally.
Solutions I've Tried:
I've verified the HD and the permissions, and everything comes up okay. I've tried resetting the PRAM, as well, out of desparation for a solution. I do back up my HD frequently, just in case.
Potentially Pertinent Background Information:
My problems started about a month ago when my battery started to go bad. Whenever I unplugged my Macbook, it would begin to freeze for a couple minutes, then unfreeze for a bit, then freeze again. This would occur fairly frequently, until being plugged back in, at which point it would behave normally. However if I closed the lid (putting it to sleep), then unplugged it, and then opened the lid, it operated fine without the frequent freezing. I attributed this to a bad battery (it said "replace soon"). So I had the battery replaced at the Apple store, and that seemed to fix the problem.
Then I encountered a problem in which the Apple menu bar items (e.g. Battery Icon, Date, Clock, Volume, Spotlight, etc.) froze up, giving me the spinning beach ball when hovering over them. This issue was resolved by deleting the preference file for the menu bar, and restarting.
This issue was shortly followed by the Quick Look function only displaying the the right quarter of each file I looked at. This was also resolved by deleting the preference file for Quick Look, and restarting.
Once that issue was resolved I happened to notice the latest one, which I cannot find any solution to. I would very much like to think these issues are coincidences, but their succession and timing have me worried.
If anyone can offer solutions to try, it would be much appreciated. Thank you.

My first thought is the sudden motion sensor is acting abnormal.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1935
You could try as a test disabling or knocking down the sensitivity to see if there is a change in behavior.
Running the AHT may give you some generic System Sensor error but not definitive by any means.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
check warranty https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

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