deranged mouse behaviour with ibm thinkpad t31

[Micha Feigin <michf@post.tau.ac.il>]

I am installing linux on a thinkpad t31. Most things work, but I think that the
mouse is setup wrong since after playing with the mouse (it's the red point in
the middle of the keyboard, not sure what it's called) for a few seconds to
minutes (not consistent) it suddenly goes crazy opening windows, pressing
buttons and flying all over the place. To release it I need to let go of the
mouse for a couple of seconds and then it goes back to normal until the next
time.

I tried setting the protocol to ImPS/2 and auto which behave the same and to
GlidePoint which doesn't function at all. device is /dev/input/mice

Any ideas?