Newbie really struggling

Hi guys. I'm using Guitar Tracks Pro3 and have a crappy ac97 soundcard on one computer and a Audigy2 on the other but I'm having the same problem on both computers. When I plug my guitar (Ibanez Jem) into any of the inputs, the computer doesn't pick it up. There is no sound at all, and all the effects options are all greyed out. I can import drum tracks etc from the cd. I have done everything you would expect ie turning the inputs on in volume control, trying different inputs, made sure the track's armed for recording etc. Windows sound recorder doesn't seem to pick the guitar up either. I must be missing something obvious here so any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks for your reply. I have done that without any success. The only other thing I thought of was that the 1/4 in to 1/8 in jackplug is a dud, though it is new, so I'll get a new one as soon as poss.
Open to any suggestions.

I've been going straight in. I have a Zoom GFX-8 I could play through. Would that do it? I'll give it a go. Thanks.

the effects remain grayed out because they dont know where to go. if you are adding an effect to a channel, go to the mixer view, and right click the blue box in the channel u are currently recording. for the other effects that are grayed out, u must have a clip selected. i hope i made since and this clears anything up.
mike