Using a lcd monitor with your laptop, resolution probs

well when updating my laptops drivers i was hoping i could have fixed a problem i had been having but it seems the new ones still dont fix it. Maybe someone here can give me a sugestion

i have a dell XPS m1710 (has a geforce go 7950 gtx gfx card) that i use as a stand in desktop. i've had a samsung 245bw hooked up to it for a while now as the main display device and just leave the laptop monitor off. They both have a native resolution of 1920X1200, which is great, except when i go to play some games. Obviously its not powerfull enough to run much other than warcraft at that resolution. The thing is it wont let me adjust the resolution when i have it displaying through the samsung. Well, it does but not the right resolutions. I can only do stupid standard 4:3 aspect stuff like 1600X1200, 1024X768, ect. It does this both if i put it in clone and in display single.

if i have it just as the laptop display i can adjust it. I know the monitor itself isn't messed up because ive plugged it into other computers and it works fine

i tried messing with the options in custom resolution to allow modes not exposed to the display but still no luck. I might be able to manually make one in there but those are always screwy

any idea why its doing this or how i can get it to work right? I never thought monitor drivers mattered much but even so, Ii tried double checking the drivers on samsungs page vs the ones i have showing up under monitors in device manager and mine actually seem newer, besides the ones on sammys page seem to be for the 245b not the 245bw

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer [...] u=download

so, any ideas? Installing the witcher EE right now and im sure that wont run at 1920 rez =P

*sigh* no one? been trying different monitor driver versions and nothings working, none of it seems to make any difference

just a game im trying to play, it doesn't run that smoothly at 1920 res so i wanted to knock it down to 1680, but like it said, i cant with the monitor attatched, even with it set as the main. It only lets me with the laptop built in monitor