Laptop + LCD = not playing nice?

[apex32]

friend got a 22" Acer lcd for christmas to use with his HP Pavilion ze5170. When the acer is hooked up it displays on the acer only but it looks bad and only looks right at the laptops built in displays native resolution of 1024x768. So obviously it isnt in the right mode. so we found the button for using an external monitor wich is function f5. so he hits it and it displays on both screens @ 1600x1200. first of all the native res is 1680x1050, and also we dont want dual setup. anyone know what to do to get this squared away

 

[Toxcity]

For just an output to the LCD don't you press Function F5 again?

I just did this 1hour ago.. Dug up a laptop and it screen SUCKS (ghost) so i plugged it into a CRT! Funtion F5 x 2 works for me..