Screen Flicker and offset

[dan10101]

I have a Systemax laptop.  I believe it is a Dell 5000 clone.  I'm having trouble with the screen flickering.  

The start menu is about 1 inch above the bottom and the screen below that (bottom 1 inch of the screen) show what should be on the top 1 inch of the screen.  

It appears to be stuck in Generic Television vs Digital Flat Panel.  Won't stay on flat panel if it set it there.  

When it boots up at the windows XP login screen, it is fine then it shifts in to the main windows screen and problems begin.  I've tried other screen resolutions and number of colors but no change.

Thanks for your help
Dan

[query]

Does the problem travel to an external monitor when one is used?  If it does not, I'd suspect a failing inverter.