That’s what we suggested like a week ago. We’re running around in circles here, as long as OP doesn’t say whether he tested different USB ports or not…
It reminds me of another thread where it took 80 posts to make them click two buttons and choose the right peripheral in the output field… Every single time we asked to check a specific parameter they would just tweak many other settings that we didn’t ask for. 
@fese I tested ALL USB ports to no avail. Power settings are all in place to support Cubase.
@st10ss It’s a XLR to 1/4 line jack cable.
I brought the Audio Interface, the cable and the Rode to a shop and it worked just fine. The only thing I didn’t carry over to the shop is the DAW.
I have a Desktop AMD A8-6500 APU 3.50 GHz, 16GB RAM running on windows 10.
And @Louis_R you may be right, I’m rubbish at computers. If you remember where that thread is, I’m more than happy to read the whole thing.
Thanks for the information! I gotta be honest, I’ve run out of ideas now.
Just another question: the mtrack should have an LED indicator for phantom power on the top. Does this light up when you enable phantom power?
Just to be clear here, Have you physically plugged your audio interface into different ports and tried it? That includes ports at the back if a desktop machine.
Edit: Ignore this, @st10ss reply below is the correct solution.
At least you have the answer now! 
(phew)
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I mentioned already it’s a phantom power issue… the line socket (jack) will not send phantom power, that’s why it is labelled line. Use a XLR to XLR cable.
What a waste of time…
third post in the thread
first line on the specs
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Front AND back of the desktop, yes I did.
UPDATE: I tried another AI, a Mackie 2i2 and , oddly, it didn’t work either. But then, after trying everything prior uninstalling and re-installing, and though it didn’t matter what cable I used (XLR to 1/4 balanced), I followed @st10ss last posting and borrowed an XLR to XLR cable and: IT WORKS!!! That is all the more odd that in my previous vocal recordings, the XLR to 1/4 balanced worked very well and I had given my XLR to XLR away - not sure what happened since then.
Anyway, thank you all for your patience and suggestions, really appreciate your trying to identify the problem and helping me through - if we weren’t so far away, I’d say a beer on me is in store!
To make it clear … the problem is not the cable itself. It was just the wrong cable for that task.
The XLR part in the combo socket is the part that provides the phantom power. The jack part is connected to the line interface of the preamp only, providing no phantom power.
That’s the reason a dynamic microphone was working, it needs no phantom power.
My old RME Octamic is providing phantom power on the jack sockets too.
This has changed in the MKII version of the Octamic.
Exactly, thanks for putting it clearly! Glad I didn’t have to go through the whole installation thing!
Wow how was this even allowed, considering the Jack cables are mostly all males 
No wonder why they released the MKII.