after umpteen emails to hp, i finally got a lead.. that panned out.
They invited me to join the hp tech forum, there.. their "Forums" are not logically grouped.
So i did a search on the specific hp model (omnibook 6000) -found about 8000 entries
Narrowed search down to about 800 by adding "video problems" to the search
read thru 540 of them before i found an obscure link back to 2001 when another user had the same issue..
Seems like inside the NEW hp ati vid driver resets the BIOS settings..
that you have to go back in and click on Display EXTEND option to stretch the screen back to the full size of the laptops built in plasma display . otherwise you get full resolution on a mini screen.. that leaves you with about a 1.5 inch border
THEN .. i had to go back into the Dual Screen settings.. make sure the plasma display (rather then the external monitor) -stayed set as the primary monitor
all worked.. and.. once i turned hardware acceleration down.. one notch.. the blurring of the lines at the bottom of the dvd playback window, went away :S
Thanx for your inputs..
CT