Digital projector crops projected image

I have a new HP Compaq nz9010 laptop and a Mitsubishi Digital Projector LVP-X80U. When I project a presentation, the desktop or anything the projector crops off the left hand side of the screen – about 2 inches worth. According to Microsoft PowerPoint the solution is to set the laptop at a lower resolution more suited to the projector or to turn off the laptop screen while projecting. Changing screen resolution doesn’t help and the only thing that will work is toggle off the laptop screen view (but then I can’t read from the laptop screen and have to turn around and look at the screen).

Does anyone know of a better solution, a patch or a fix out there.

Thank you
Bruce