The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[timrice]

Anybody out there having this same problem? I've been downloading the USA Today puzzle from their website since they introduced it, and recently I find that while the rest of the page loads, the puzzle itself never appears.

I thought that maybe it had something to do with my Flash Player version, so I updated that. I thought it might be a problem with pop-ups being blocked, so I changed those settings. I cleared out all the old cookies from my Temporary Internet Files directory. Did no good.

I e-mailed USA Today and asked the question, and they were no help.

Hope somebody knows how to fix it...thanks.

[Pat]

I've been downloading the USA Today puzzle from their website since they introduced it,

recently I find that while the rest of the page loads, the puzzle itself never appears.

just tried today's puzzle,
also by date ( e.g. 2008.Mar.30 )

works fine --
just takes a few seconds for the puzzle to show up

[timrice]

I'm glad you're having better luck than I am. The puzzle is indeed the last piece of the page to load, but the difference for me is that the puzzle NEVER shows up. Perhaps I should have been clearer about this in my original post, but I realize the site is working fine for some/most people. It's almost got to have something to do with my computer as opposed to the website itself.

I am hoping someone out there will have had the experience of knowing WHY the puzzle stopped appearing for them and thus HOW to fix it.

[Draco]

Hi Tim,

The puzzle appears to be the standard UClick stuff; there is a support link on the USA Today site that points to support@uclick.com. You might have better luck asking them.

Good luck!

- drac

[timrice]

I contacted Uclick support a few days ago...here's what they said:


Puzzles not loading could be the result of a few different things, so I'll give you a list of things to check.

--clear your cache
--make sure that you have Javascript/Jscript enabled.
--your browser must be set to allow cookies.
--pop-up blockers can interfere with puzzles loading, so either turn these off or add the website to an allowed list.
--you may need to reinstall the Flash Player required to run the game. You can do this at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/, then click on "Download now" and follow the directions there.

Give these a try and let us know if you still have problems.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's what I sent in response:

Cache is cleared. Browser allows cookies. Flash player is latest revision. Pop-up blocker is off. Javascript is enabled with a "high safety" setting. Puzzle still does not load. Usually it says "Done," but once when the puzzle failed to load, the lower left corner of the browser window said "Error on page" clicking that opened up a box that said:

Line: 154
Char: 1
Error: Object expected
Code: 0
URL: http://puzzles.usatoday.com/sudoku/?POE=SULFLN

Thanks for all the recommendations, but none of them fix the problem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I don't know...maybe I'm just out of luck. This may be a signal that I should be doing harder puzzles now anyway!

[Draco]

Hi Tim,

Sometimes when things go out of whack with browser-based apps it can be really hard to get them fixed. I suppose that goes for any app, but often more so when it's a browser app.

You could always try a site like WebSudoku.com. They have a non-Flash based Internet player, lots of different puzzles (their Hard & Evil puzzles are about on par with or a bit harder than USA Today's Level 5 UClick puzzles). Loads a LOT faster than UClick's Flash-based player too.

There are also many solver programs out there that will generate and/or download puzzles for your solving pleasure. Check out the Solver programs forum for more info on some of those. A favorite of many people on these boards (even some of those who've written their own solvers) is Simple Sudoku.

Hope the above helps!

Cheers...

- drac

[lightningbug]

I've had that too, particularly with the mini-sudoku. I have found it happens when I first click into the puzzle (i.e. on a link saying "Sudoku) and sometimes when I click on Today's Puzzle. But I am usually fine if I click the date I want on the calendar on the bottom. Page then reloads WITH puzzle. Hope it works for you.

[hclopez883]

I had the same problem using FireFox. I tried IE and it loaded. Hope this helps