Help trouble shooting a General Electric 3-5145b?

Hello everyone, I am brand new to Cassettes. I just got an old General Electric 3-5145b from my parents, but when I went to attempt to record some music onto some brand new black cassettes, I placed the tape into the recorder, plugged in an audio jack to both the recorder and my laptop, and hit record, nothing happened.

The play, FFWD, and Rewind buttons all function as needed, but the record function doesn't do anything.

One thought I had (forgive me if this is a stupid Idea) is that being that this is a battery operated recorder, and I only have it plugged into a socket, maybe I need to have the batteries in as well for some reason (again, just typing that out made me feel stupid but I literally have no Idea what I'm doing)

Idk if the type of tape I'm using would have an impact but just incase I'm using a TDK Low noise, 60 minute tape. It's type 1 but I'm not sure what kind of type 1 Cassette it is.

Let me know if you have any questions or want any pictures. Thank you so so much!