I understand that,  ..there is no sound card I know( for professional recording that has " mic line in) lets try to be clearer.

There are 2 breakouts in the back, 9 pin and a 15 pin

I also have both types of 15 pin breakouts, the balanced with the XLR connectors and the unbalanced with the  4 RCA, RL out. RL in MIDI ( in/ out)) headphone

Both 15 pin breakouts work fine, the balanced breakout is noisy as hell, so I prefer the unbalanced cable.

Its the second set( the 9 pin) that  has SPDIF in and out, XLR in and XLR out,   thats the one thats either not working, or you can only use the 15 pin and not the 15 pin and 9 pin together on the same card?

Connected to the XLR in is the Presonous. the mic is plugged into the Preonous, so I have lots of phantom power.

I am just wondering if there is a step I am missing in the HDSP mixer or Control panel in order to get these inputs and outputs to work.

For example, check the box that says " XLR" , the go to the mixer, but I have no idea what to look for, maybe line in ( AES 1+2) ???

Something is wrong with the balanced breakout cable. Generally, balanced cables pick up less noise.

These XLR in and XLR out are AES 'Digital' input and output. You connect the souce that has an AES digital output to the AES input of this XLR connector, and a DA converter that accepts AES digital input from the AES output of the XLR connector.
These XLR connectors of 9 pin breakout cable are NOT for microphones.

Because the Presonus unit has microphone preamps built-in to the XLR connector. RME AIO card does NOT have microphone preamp as mentioned by Isaac above.

Microphone signals need to be amplified by microphone preamp before going into the audio interface. This amplification usually brings the 'mic level' up to the 'line level'. The presonus unit has microphone preamps and interface to the computer all in one package. AIO card is meant only for the interface, and accepts 'line level' signals, so you need microphone preamp separately.

By the way, 'lots of phantom power' does not make sense. Phantom power is used to drive condensor microphones, and dynamic microphone does not require phantom power. What kind of microphone are you using?

No, there isn't a step in the HDSP mixer to solve this issue. You NEED a microphone preamp. You connect your mic to the preamp, and connect the output of the preamp to the AIO card's breakout cable (15 pin breakout) LINE IN.

And finally, it's probably more important to understand basics of studio gear connections, by visiting this kind of site
http://tweakheadz.com/

This side has lots of information, and basic explanation for the words such as 'microphone preamp', 'phantom power', and 'line level'.
I encourage to go and check before you damage the AIO card.

Thanks Daniel, yes  that must be the case, no big deal.

Cheers, JRM

Okay you do have microphone preamps. I thought your presonus box is something like the Firestudio fireaudio interface, or something similar.

Now, what you need to do is to connect the output from the presonus preamp to the line in of the RME AIO card. I believe the output of presonus microphone preamp is balanced out (either 1/4 TRS or XLR male). Since your balanced breakout cable isn't working, the line in of the unbalanced cable is RCA plug. So, you need a cable from 1/4 TRS to RCA male.

In the first post, you started indicating you plugged in mic cable directly from microphone to the AIO card. That's why everybody responded "AIO doesn't have a mic preamp".