Your HP Mini 3500 netbook uses the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 graphics-adapter. There are no know GMA BIOS editors (you can only update the video BIOS by updating the system BIOS), so even if it were possible to do what you want with an Nvidia or ATI video-card, it won’t apply to your case. Sorry; netbooks just aren’t meant to be hooked up to widescreen LCDs.
Since your netbook is still new and supported, you should consider contacting HP to ask them to fix the shortcoming. You may not get the information you wanted to edit the video BIOS, but at least your problem would be officially fixed without compromise. There are several support options, so you should be able to contact a technical support rep. It looks like you have already asked other users about the problem, and like DimaO said, the specs (do a search for “resolution”) indicate that maximum resolution for the analog VGA connector is 1440x1050. That’s why HP blocked higher resolutions in the BIOS; because they are not supported and would have unpredictable/unreliable performance and/or results. Even it if works, it is not dependable and so they don’t allow it or support it. It’s the same with plenty of other hardware. For example, CPU manufacturers often produce a batch of the same CPU, but then lock it down in different ways to release different versions. Unlocking it may work, but because it’s a hack, it could cause problems, and at the very least, would void the warranty (which I suspect is also the case for your netbook; flashing unofficial BIOSes is usually a violation).
What do you mean by your first sentence? What exactly is the problem with the LCD monitor on the aforementioned systems? Are you saying that the LCD’s native resolution is not supported by the video card? There aren’t exactly dozens of unique resolutions; there’s generally a small handful, and those are generally supported by most video cards made in the past dozen years (ie, since LCD monitors started becoming affordable for the masses). The problem will usually be a combination of really old video card and non-standard LCD monitor.
If the mode is blocked, then it is not supported for whatever reason, otherwise they wouldn’t have blocked it; the mfgs are stupid or purposely messing with customers. Even if there is a way to force it to switch to that mode, then there is likely to be problems.
When you say that the graphics mode is not supported, do you mean that it is not listed in the list of resolutions in Display Properties (or other resolution selection dialog)? For example, 320x200 is rarely listed these days, and even 640x480 isn’t provided as an option in Vista+. If so, have you tried using a resolution program such as QRes or QuickRes to manually set the resolution?
As for the VESA BIOS Extensions, you are misinterpreting it. There is no actual video BIOS involved in that. Rather, they are extensions to the standard BIOS. That is, VESA extensions specify additional graphics modes that were not part of the original set of modes that the (system) BIOS supported via the INT 10 function (which was used to set the graphics mode among other graphics-related things). So basically what would happen is that a video card mfg would build their cards to support these additional graphics modes, and thus, the card supported the VESA BIOS Extensions.
@Synetech inc.: No the video card does support the native resolution of the LCD monitor but after much Googling on forums and here it turns out to be a common problem and the diagnosis is that some PC makers actually block certain video modes in their video BIOS (especially in laptops - mine is a netbook)! I will try to find some links to such discussions to convince you since it is truly counterintuitive. – hippietrail – 2011-08-13T06:08:11.067
@Synetech inc.: Yes the modes are blocked at the level where they will not appear in mode lists. I have tried programs like you recommend and they did not work for this problem. I did find a workaround on the net which is to define a mode four pixels less horizontally and this worked fine! But as a programmer with low level hacking experience from the old days I have an urge to look for a better solution by following and understanding all technical avenues. The best tips say it's in the video/vesa BIOS but finding info on hacking that is proving difficult. – hippietrail – 2011-08-13T06:24:39.753
1
That’s because most of the editors only address clocks and fans. I have not seen any resolution modifications in some time (and even then, I’m not certain that I did back then). It will likely have nothing to do with VESA since the last release (VBE3) was in 1998, before LCD’s were in common use (or at all for that matter). You’ll notice that the highest mode it specifies is 1280x1024, which is only native for older LCDs (and certainly no widescreen formats).
– Synetech – 2011-08-13T06:33:43.423@Synetech inc.: I've never used a BIOS editor so I'm not sure what to expect from one. In the discussion in various places of people with this problem it seemed they were using the terms VESA BIOS and video BIOS interchangeably and with scant info about what VESA does in this day and age I've been trying to chase down the technical details of what they were talking about. – hippietrail – 2011-08-13T06:38:59.017
1Like I said, there is no “VESA BIOS”; VESA is a group/standards body that came up with the specifications for higher resolution graphics modes than were previously available so that the then-many video-card mfgs didn’t just up and make their own proprietary modes because graphics programming in those days was Hell (Microsoft’s creation of DirectX was the second half of the boon for graphics programmers). The VBE is an extension to the graphics-modes provided by the system BIOS. – Synetech – 2011-08-13T06:47:27.663