HP Pavilion DV5234US Display problem: Has LCD panel gone south?

Hi to all!

I am new to this forum and this is my first post.... Hate to start with a personal problem but need some advice from people that really know!!!

My problem is as follows:

A couple of days ago I ws booting my very little used Pavillion DV5234US and noticed that the HP logo was off center (slightly to the left) which looked odd, and then, when XP started loading I confirmed that the XP logo was also off center to the left and that the display was sort of like split in 4 sections: one completely reduced screen to the left, about 8" x 6" to the left of the screen, a black vertical strip about 1cm wide and then another vertical section about 3" wide to the right of the screen that sort of repeat what is is displayed on the left side "screen". A thin (about 0.5 cm) horizontall stripe along the bottom is also noticeable in the following picture:


This definitively not an OS related issue as the same thing happens during the HP logo splash screen orthe BIOS Setup screen.

If i connect either a standard CRT or a widescreen LCD external monitor, the external display is perfect, it is only the laptop´s display that shows this problem (This would apparently discardthe video card as the cause of the problem).

The "minimized" screen is perfect in every way (except its size of course!) and I can change the resolution and color depth without a problem. The only other funny thing I have noted is that under monitor properties (listed as LCD 1024x768 flat panel by the way) the refresh rate shown is 49 Hz and it cannot be modified which is very odd. A check with another DV5234US shows the the refresh rate to be 60 Hz which is more reasonable.

I contacted HP support and they say it is a problem with the LCD display and they want around US $ 400 up front (computer is of course 2 months out of warranty!). I really think this is way out too much money... and if it really IS the lcd panel, I can probably have it replaced for less tha half of this amount...

Could this problem be caused by a faulty or corrupted BIOS that is not recognizing the widescreen format of the laptop or is it a faulty LCD screen?

I have spent several hours on the internet looking for a similar problem but without any luck and I hope someone here can point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance!!!

Juan Carlos