I'm having the same problem, the window comes up but the game room applet won't load, all I get is an X in the

Answer 1

Red X error. find your answers here.
http://java.com/en/download/help/5000040200.xml

Answer 2

I had the same problem. Sometimes I could get in and sometimes it would show up a red X in the applet window where the game room is supposed to load, Then when I finally got in, there was a terrible lag, So, here is what I did:
I have Sun java and microsoft vm in Internet explorer7 (they can conflict)
I opened up my java console (in IE7, go to tools> sun java console) type an "x" to clear the classloader cache, click ok.
Now go to internet options and open the advanced tab (tools> internet options> advanced tab) scroll down to java and see if you have microsoft vm, if so, uncheck the java 2.(whatever), and check the JIT compiler box in the microsoft vm, click "apply", then "OK". Then restart internet explorer, login to Yahoo spades and when it asks if you wanna run yahoo spades, click "run"
You will get in immediately and THE LAG WILL BE GONE FOREVER!
Yahoo's browser has issues with SUN java as default. if you are running SUN java and VM they can conflict and cause this error
Yahoo is Java dependant.
This is also the reason for the games applets not loading and some
web cam issues.
The easiest fix is to update get windows updates, internet explorer updates from microsoft. If you don't have microsoft vm, go to www.microsoft.com, click "downloads" and update your IE and then you should get virtual machine (microsoft vm). Another solution is to get a different browser, Mozilla firefox is good.

In spades, Yahoo is trying to prevent cheating and kids running booter programs and just plain annoying tactics like filling up all the tables and not playing and advertiser bot programs.
I haven't had a problem in any other yahoo games, but to fix the spades problem you'll need to get microsoft virtual machine,
You can also locate some answers to Java problems here:
http://java.com/en/download/help/5000040200.xml