X and laptop

[Eric S. Johansson]

  the last time I tried to use this laptop was about three or four 
months ago but dapper had serious problems with the video.  Unfortunate, 
I ran out of time and energy to deal with the problem.  So here I am 
with edgy and have found that X11 has failed me yet again in a different 
way.  Or maybe it's the configuration tool.  Doesn't matter.  The 
display doesn't work right.

Summarizing, the laptop is a Compaq 1700t.  video is a ATI Technologies 
Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x.  Edgy sees it as a generic video car 
"vesa" with a generic Monitor.  As a result, it only displays video up 
to 1024x768.  The screen can do 1400 x 1050.  When I use the resolution 
tool to move the screen resolution higher, I get a blocky, garbled 
display with pieces of graphics replicated across the screen.

I hope to give this laptop as a gift to a fellow writer so I'd like make 
it work and hopefully be supportable since you know no good deeds go 
unpunished.  :-)

If I can get the screen to work on the next thing I'll be asking about 
is soft modems and AOL (since that's what she uses).

---eric