I have a new and old laptops. When I activate Dropbox in my old laptop I see my files readily. I installed Dropbox in the new laptop, but when I login, there are no files at all.
Have you given it time to sync? What happens if you go to the website on the new laptop? Do they appear there?
If not you've almost certainly set up a new account rather than log in with the same account as on the old device. Simply log out and back in with the correct details 🙂