I tried connecting my 20" LCD to my laptop's VGA port to test out the external video. When connected, the picture on the external monitor is fine, but there are a bunch of horizontal shaky lines that kind of distort the display. Why is this??

My laptop has a 14.1" screen (1280 x 800) with Intel X3100 video. My external monitor is an Acer AL2016WBbd 20" (1680 x 1050). The monitor works great (no lines) when plugged into a computer via DVI, and my Xbox 360 display's great too via VGA.

Is it because of the laptop's sh*tty video or could there possibly be something wrong with the monitor's VGA port??

(bump) Anyone??

Are you displaying through both the laptop monitor and the 20" LCD at the same time? Perhaps extending the desktop as well between the two screens? If yes, try to display only on one monitor at a time, see if it will make any difference. Try to adjust the refresh rate, too, normally should be between 60Hz to 75Hz for LCD, see if that's the problem. If nothing works, then may it is just your laptop video's not powerful enough.

Yeah i tried just the external display, extend/mirror desktop, every resolution, and every refresh rate with no change. Lousy X3100

This seems an odd indication.
How long is the VGA cable?
It's possible that there is too high a signal loss for a stable external display.
Have you tried a shorter or different VGA cable?
Have you tried hooking up to the monitor via the DVI port using a VGA/DVI converter?

I was thinking that too.. it seems that when I try to plug in the VGA to the laptop it doesnt fit in all the way and sort of wobbles around even though its in as far as it can go.

The VGA cable is a few feet long and no I have not tried a different cable or DVI-VGA converter but I will now.

Well if you were having sync issues with analog VGA due to poor seating of the connector, I would expect that you'd not have a display at all, as I think the horzontal sync signal is piggybacked on the Red driver connection. I could be wrong as it's been a while.
I'd still try the different cable, but I'm still wondering about the inability to properly seat the VGA connector. Are we sure that it is a standard? Or does it possibly require a custom cable/docking station?
Look closely at the VGA port on the laptop to make sure that it is a standard SubD-15 with no blocked pins. Also make sure that the VGA cable you are using doesn't have a "standoff" from another system still attached.

Yeah its a standard port with no blocked pins. ill try another cable in a bit.