no spawners - empty spawners, no particles, no spinning fire, just an empty spawner

after creating a new world, I started exploring, and found a spawner. It seemed like a normal spawner.. I lit it up, and came back a little while later.. but this time, no mobs were inside.. no particles, no fires, no spinning anything. I removed the torches, and let it get dark, and waited, but no mobs appeared. MOBs did appear when I first found it.. but, not anymore.

I checked the difficulty lvl and it was HARD. I reset it to peaceful, and restarted, and switched back to hard, but no difference.. still nothing inside.

I went into creative, no difference... I tried the different snapshots, and still nothing.

I tried cheats, and then placing an egg inside, and it did create a baby mob, but it would not do anything inside the spawner cage...

I went into spectator mode, and nothing.. I searched for other spawners, and couldnt find any.

what happened.... I have abandoned that world and started another, and still havent found a spawner, but, I kinda just started... thanks

bill