Issue with JFrame, opens blank - jframe

Question

For a project of mine (I'm very new & even newer to guis) I'm making a GUI based game it has worked so far however, when you complete level one, it reopens level two but the JFrame is completely white and unresponsive, I have tried a few things but however I am not close to finding out what the issue is. Please help me, The code for the game is:
public class gameWithGuis extends JFrame implements ActionListener, Runnable{
static int levelNum = 1;
static int find;
static int length = 3;
static int area = length * length;
static ArrayList<JButton> buttonsHolder = new ArrayList<JButton>();
Container pane = getContentPane();
static gameWithGuis threadA = new gameWithGuis(); //Starts 10 second timer
static Thread timerThread = new Thread(threadA);
static boolean levelUp = false;
public void run(){
try{
int time = 1;
while (time<=10){
Thread.sleep(1000);
time++;
}
super.dispose();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You have ran out of time! Game over!");
highscores(levelNum);
}catch (Exception e){}
}
public void main(){
Scanner sc = new Scanner(System.in);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Welcome to pseudo-Where's Wally, look for the lower case L(l) character.");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You get 10 seconds to find it.");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"The answer are the coordinates multiplied together.");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"That is what you must type in. Good luck!");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Ready?..");
char clear = (char)(12);
System.out.print(clear);
timerThread.start();
makingGrid();
}
public static void highscores(int levelNum){
AQAWriteTextFile2013 writer = new AQAWriteTextFile2013();
AQAReadTextFile2013 reader = new AQAReadTextFile2013();
Scanner scTwo = new Scanner(System.in);
String fileName = "highscores.txt";
String save = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,"Would you like to save your score? (yes or no): ");
if (save.equalsIgnoreCase("yes")){
String runningLine = "";
String name = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null,"Name please: ");
writer.openFile(fileName, true); //opens highscore file
String writeLine = name + "\t" + levelNum;
writer.writeToTextFile(writeLine); //writes your name and the level you reached to the file
writer.closeFile();
reader.openTextFile(fileName); //shows you the list of peoples scores
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Current Highscores: ");
String line = reader.readLine();
if (line ==null) JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"- - NONE - -"); //if file is empty
do //prints the lines within the file
{
line = reader.readLine();
runningLine = runningLine+"\n"+line+" ";
}while (line !=null);
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,runningLine);
reader.closeFile();
System.exit(0);
} else if (save.equalsIgnoreCase("no")){
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Okay, thank you for playing!");
System.exit(0);
} else {
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Please answer yes or no."); //validation
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
new gameWithGuis().main();
}
#Override
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent arg0){
JButton[] buttons = buttonsHolder.toArray(new JButton[buttonsHolder.size()]);
// for(int i = 0; i<=amountOfButtons; i++){
// buttonsHolder[].toArray();
// // buttons[i] = buttonsHolder[i];
// }
if(arg0.getSource().equals(buttons[find])){
timerThread.stop();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Correct!");
levelNum++;
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"Level up! You are now on level: "+levelNum+". The grid has an area of "+(length*length)+" now.");
levelUp = true; //go through to the next level
pane.removeAll();
super.dispose();
makingGrid();
}else{
timerThread.stop();
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You guessed wrong! Game over!");
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,"You reached level: "+levelNum+".");
highscores(levelNum);
}
}
public void makingGrid(){
do{
if(levelNum>1){
length = length + 2; //increase length and height of box by 2 both ways
area = length*length;
}
JButton[] buttons = new JButton[area];
Random gen = new Random();
find = gen.nextInt(area);
setTitle("Where's J?");
// Container pane = getContentPane();
pane.setLayout(new GridLayout(length, length));
for(int i = 0; i<area; i++){
buttons[i] = new JButton();
buttons[i].setText("I");
if(i == find){
buttons[i].setText("J");
}
buttonsHolder.add(buttons[i]);
pane.add(buttons[i]);
buttons[i].addActionListener(this);
}
setVisible(true);
setDefaultCloseOperation(EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
// timerThread.start();
} while (levelUp);
}
}
Please no sarcastic comments if I'm being stupid and missed something obvious too you, I'm new too this language and to this website. Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

don't worry... No one will give you a sarcastic comment. It is just not right or fair.
Your code has a lot to improve. But congratulations for writing it!
Your problem is that levelUp is always true on the second level. This causes an infinite loop inside the makingGrid(). In this case JFrame stop repainting.