Ok, I've got a cheap, 10 dollar desktop mic with a 1/8 inch input and I want to plug in into my UA-25 (http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-25/index.html) 1/4 input to use for voice chat.

the UA-25 accepts 1/4 inch input so I went to Radioshack to go buy a mono-to-mono 1/8-to-1/4 inch adapter, but I can't detect any kind of input.
I've also tried to using a 1/8-to-1/4 inch adapter which came with an old sennheiser can i bought, which I'm guessing are stereo-to-stereo, but that didnt work either.

Can someone please point out to me what I'm doing wrong ?

edit: the mic works fine through my onboard soundcard on the laptop, but when i plug it into the ua-25 nothing is detected, i cant hear anything even through direct monitoring.

Does this UA-25 have a microphone preamp? Essentially all microphones require a preamp.

Yea, it has a pre-amp
http://www.roland.com/products/en/UA-25/features.html
I've tried using two different desktop mics and neither have worked.
Could it be that the input on the ua-25 is broken :\? Im really hoping that is not the case.
Does this set up have the right connections?
Desktop Mic 1/8 output > 1/8-to-1/4 mono-to-mono adapter > ua-25 1/4 input

If so does that mean that my soundcard is defective? I've tried both of the two inputs on it, and I haven't been able to pick up any sound through my computer.

Im a real newbie at this so sorry if i frustrated you, your help is really appreciated.

The recording program should have a input device setup under some label such as "preferences" or "settings." The soundcard microphone input is separate and distinct from the line-in.

If you already have that selected properly, try a noise floor recording from the microphone input, without the microphone plugged into the soundcard.

All microphone preamps hae a gain control, some also have an output level control. If there is a level control, set it at maximum. Set the gain at minimum.

While recording (just the soundcard's internal noise). step up the gain every few seconds. The completed recording should show a higher level (of the recorded noise) for each step in gain you made. If this works, the soundcard's preamp is working.

wow thanks for that!
I used audacity to record as stereo, and the noise levels increased as a I raised the sensitivy.
so am i right in guessing that the problem is in the choice of adapter and that there are no problems with the mic or soundcard?

Maybe the preamp doesn't apply to 1/4" inputs because the sound card assumes it is line-level? Check the documentation.

It would appear that the basic problem is not with the soundcard or its microphone preamplifier(s. did you test both>). A good follow-up test would be to try recording with some reasonable condenser microphone that does not require an adapter. This may be easier said than done if you don't know anyone with such a microphone, however.

If the microphone works with the onboard soundcard, it obviously isn't broken. You should be able to test the adapter with a ohm meter is assure that the connection is good on both sides.

Does the soundcard manual say anything in particular about using a dynamic microphone? The type you have may be high impedance. The link you provides mentions that input 2 will work with high impedance devices and the photo shows a switch to convert it to high impedance. The literature mentions a TRS plug for balanced input, but converting to unbalanced with a mono plug usually works. Are you getting these non-results using microphone input 2 (right channel)?