Laptop's LCD image veritically "rolls" but will drive an ext CRT perfectly.

This is a bone stock HP zt1135 LAPTOP running OEM supplied XP O.S.
It is also set to dual boot Ubantu and the Video problem has appeared running under either operating system on same date, after previously working under both.

The Problem:
all images rapidly move from top of screen to bottom at a dizzying pace.

The computer/LCD was not subjected to physical mistreatment as the problem came after a restart in which I'd not moved the computer.

I will post some screen shots of the machine's specs in following posts.

Thanks for looking.

 

All I can think of is either the refresh rate or resolution has been changed to something too high for the LCD, or it's damaged physically somehow. Like maybe an internal part blew out; it was old or faulty and it was time to die Not great advice or encouraging news, but without seeing it in person, it's hard to say. Maybe contact HP if it's under warranty, or visit your local laptop experts....

 

True enough. Older than dirt. 7 years. The refresh rate sounds possible but the settings/specifications, I'm guessing, would have to have gone wacky independently of what the user (me) did?
I'm totally reaching. It is just that the issue is the same under Ubantu so I'm guessing the adapter's (user defined) display setting are not the issue?

Any ideas as to a BIOS update resolving it...possibly?
The HP support page seems to suggest I'd need a floppy drive to flash the BIOS.
But that has not been suggested here, so I've pursued it as an option.

Some specs:

 

I seriously doubt that BIOS flash would fix it. But why not try it anyway? If you don't have a floppy drive, you can create a bootable floppy 'image' (an .ISO file) that also contains the BIOS files you need, and burn it to CD. Then boot to it. You'll need access to a PC with a floppy drive to do this the easy way.... (create a bootable MSDOS floppy, copy the BIOS files to it, use an ISO creator to turn the floppy into an ISO image, burn the image to CD). It can be done without a floppy drive. Here's a few 'how-to' links:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/75
http://www.techsupportalert.com/search/t1214.pdf (this links directly to an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file)

 

I was thinking the whole floppy technique sounded dated, but then again my Laptop is from the era when many machines had it as an option.

Thanks for the info and links.