Got to love the wiki for the newbies in need.

Welcome to recording.org irishdave see: DAW, interface, converter, preamp for starters.

Hi Dave,

The primer topics audiokid recommends would be good. Bottom-line you'll be infinitely happier with the results you'll get from a proper recording interface, compared to plugging directly into the computer's mic jack. Typical computer soundcards are notoriously lo-fidelity.

At first I thought it was a computer issue, routing the audio input - until you said you tried it with a handheld voice recorder.

Could you please describe, or better yet, give a link to "the appropriate connector"?

Knowing what software you're using on the computer would be useful too.

You have a dynamic mic, so it doesn't need a power source. "So how does it generate sound?" Dynamic mics are pretty simple transducers, soundwaves cause the thin diaphragm inside to vibrate. There is a coil of very fine wire underneath the diaphragm that is suspended in a magnetic field. The coil moving within the magnetic field generates a very low level electrical signal that gets amplified many times over before it comes out the speaker. [which incidentally is also a transducer that usually does the opposite - converts the electrical signals back into vibrations in the air]

Best of luck.