Annoying touchpad sensitivity issue

I'm on my 3rd AAO (all AOA150-1447, blue WinXP 160gb models).

* #1 was orderded from Amazon, waited 6 wks for delivery but was super happy with it, until...
* #2 bought for my father and he loves it.
* #3. Well, this was a replacement after I accidentally spilled wine on AAO #1. Apparently, that's not a good thing.

This most recent unit seems to have an issue with the trackpad. It is highly un-sensitive.

During initial configuration (and I did an eRecovery once to see if that was the issue) the trackpad is nearly unusable. Responds, but very slowly. Double tap barely works. Though the windows Mouse configuration, I adjusted the sensitivity settings to their most sensitive, but still the trackpad is not nearly as responsive as the other 2 One's that I've used.

The bottom 50% of the trackpad seems to respond appropriately. The middle 25% is responsive to hard touch. The top 25% of the touchpad is nearly unresponsive. To double tap I can only use the bottom half of the trackpad.

I have updated the Synaptics drivers, but it doesn't seem any better. I'm beginning to think this is a hardware issue. It would be one thing if it weren't functional at all.

Any thoughts or suggestions?