Touchpad center column "deadspot"

[Pedro DeKeratry]

I asked this on the Ubuntu forums but go no bites. Since it deals with
an X input device I figured someone here might have more insight as to
where begin looking for the source of the problem.

Laptop : Sony VAIO VPCF111FX
Ubuntu versions tried: 10.04 LTS x64 and 10.10 x64

Problem: The exact center column of the touchpad is dead in a weird
way. Any clicking action on it does nothing. Clicking outside of the
center column works fine. Initiating cursor movement from the center
column and moving it up and down produces no cursor movement, however,
if I then move outside of the center column then movement works and
even continues to work when I return to the center column and move it
up and down. Initiating cursor movement from outside the center column
and moving into the center column and then up and down produces
correct cursor movement.

I'm pretty sure the touchpad itself is fine because it worked
flawlessly in Win7 before I nuked it and re-installed with 10.04 LTS.
I installed 10.10 on a new partition in the hopes that touchpad issue
would go away, but it remains.

What could possibly create such a strange response?

--Pedro