No guitar sound

Hi, i just got MC3 in the mail today. I thought usuing this program would be pretty simple for the kind of stuff i wanted to do right out of the box. and currently i don't have an external soundcard but i read in the help section that you can connect your electric guitar by simply using a 1/4 - 1/8 adapter to the mic input. So i hooked it up but it didn't work right away. but after a few minutes of messing around with the settings i figured out how to record using my microphone but the guitar still doesnt give any sound and it doesn't even show that anything is registering on the software but if i unplug the guitar and put the mic back in the same mic input i can record vocals no problem. is there something i am missing here?

I am running on a older computer i have an Emachine T1120 with 512 MB Ram, a SoundMax Digital Audio Soundcard and an intel Celoron Processor. Im not sure if any of that info will help.
Eric

at the moment i have my small Fender 15 watt amp. it has a 8(ohlm)? External Speaker jack and a headphones jack, it doesn't have the yellow and white stereo jacks if that is what i need. I didn't even know you can hook the amp to the computer, i was afraid it could blow it out or something. im sorry, i not very good with electronics i try reading through all the help files but they don't seem to offer any help at all and they give me a headache cause i don't know what it is refering to half the time.

anyways if there is no solutuion to my problem without having to buy more equpment what would you suggest? i am not looking to spend alot of money. i have a small 4 track recorder and i wanted to upgrade a bit so i got this program because of the price and the number of tracks and effects i can use. anyways i saw a M-Audio Refurbished Fast Track USB Computer Recording Interface for around $70 on musiciansfriend.com, is this the sort of thing i should be looking for?
Thanks for the help

Can you hear the guitar if you plug it in to the 4 track? If you can, it has on board pre-amps, so plug into an input of the recorder, then use the line out from the recorder to your computer line in. Might need some adapters. Least expensive way to get the guitar into the computer, since the mic works, would be an inexpensive pre-amp,Behringer sells one for about $50, small tube amp, little to no noise.
Later
Albert

I though about using the 4 track after i made my last post. the guitar sounds fine in my 4 track plus i have all the cables i think i need because i have some i use for mixing down from the 4 tarck to regular casettes.. also i have a few boss effects pedals that i can try using too.. i just was alittle afraid of plugging either the 4 track or the effects pedals into my computer since i have no idea what the end result would be. My 4 track is a Tascam MF-P01 it has a L and R outputs plus i have several boss pedals and a zoom multi effects pedal. its late tonight so i will probably try that out tomarrow. But definatly let me know if it is safe to use any of these to plug into my computer i really don't want to fry it.. also does the pedal have to goto the line in or can i use the mic in jack for that also? i am only asking because my mic in is convieniently in the front on my computer as the other inputs are in the back and the way it is set up it is kinda hard to pull it out and mess around with. ill let you guys know how it works out tomarrow thanks for the help.

You should use the line in for the output from your mixer/tape deck. The mic in has a little pre-amp which might boost the line in signal to overload level. I used my Tascam 4-track cassette for quite a while as a mixer, so yours should work.
Greg