OK, so at least we know it's something with the laptop, not the projector or cable - unless you used the same cable for both?
Go to the start menu, right click Computer, click Manage, then go to Device Manager. Do you have any devices with yellow exclamation or question marks next to them? It's possible that the graphics drivers aren't installed. If you do, right click on them go to properties, go to the details tab, change the dropdown to Hardware IDs, and post the first line here so we can identify the device and direct you to the appropriate driver.