quick n easy laptop to computer moniter question

hi i tried last night to hook a pc monitor to my laptop in the connection port on my laptop but it wont show anything on the monitor, i tried lookin around to do it myself but i couldn't figure it out where the setting on my laptop to fix this was.
any suggestions i'm running xp
how do i get this to run properly

 

did u try changing monitor settings?

 

i accessed the monitor settings but i couldnt find anything when i was browsing around in the settings that would help unless i was overlooking it

 

Unless you have an extremely out of date laptop/video card, you shouldn't have a problem. Look for display settings or output settings in your monitor settings menu. You should have the options to display on your laptop, monitor through your monitor port, or even both screens.