Sounds like your laptop is not scaling non-native resolutions. That is usually in your BIOS, hit DEL or F2 or whatever during boot, and look in the advanced options. Should be a setting for scaling.

Another alternative is to install the game into DOSBox, and have it scale for you. That is a little harder as you need to manually copy the files from your DVD. The DOS installer won't work on the DVD itself.

I'm a moron.. problem solved.. I was using the SIERRAW.EXE instead of the GK2CD.BAT to start the game...this solved the problem, don't know how or why and don't care. Thanks for the reply though!

You can also use my installer, which will set the game up to play from the harddrive, but with the DOS version. It will also automatically set it up to play in DOSBox. New Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery DOSBox Installer

Thanks collector... i've used your stuff before, and it's been updated since the last time i saw it. Thanks alot.

Collector: do you have an active link to that installer? The current page where they are links to Gold Rush instead of GK2. Any help would be great!

Thanks for finding the broken link. I'll fix it after I get home from work.

Edit, here:

New Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery DOSBox Installer