Joystick/Games Pad Problems

[Shoonay]

also just an unbranded game pad which doesn't seem to do anything

Nothing a little hackery wouldn't fix
I've "converted" a few Genesis and Pegazus (Polish NES clone) pads and it's easy, all you have to do is check the signals and solder the wires directly onto the pad's board.

But yeah, like Harry mentioned, first make sure the ports work at all - test them with the mouse, anything, and then check the non-working joystick/pad for a switch of somesort that might exist.
IF the ports work and the joy/pads don't, get inside them and test them for connection problems.