I have a hardware problem with my laptop?

i have windows vista and i have recently recieved HALO 1 for it, it works fine and its going well, but i want to be able to use my Xbox 360 controller with it (i know i can, ive seen it done). i have the cable that plugs into the USB port, and it has the most recent downloaded software, but for some reason the controller just wont do anything. i tried to configure it with HALO but i doesnt give me the option to switch over to a the controller as the input device because it does not read the controller AS an input device for the game. PLZ HLP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…