"Sites" drop down never appears in 3.3 network setup

I just got on Hostgator with WordPress. Neither they withg their install scripts nor I doing it manyually, can get the “Sites” dropdown to appear on a network install of 3.3

They contend that MU users with versions prior to 3.0 have no problems, and that up until now 3.0-3.3 users have made no complaints, which I have to take their word for, as have no idea why this is not showing up.

I set all up as the Codex required, SQL, then added the allow multisite in the wp-config.php, restarted and the network settings selection then appeared in tools, put in the blog dir, the .htaccess strings (BTW, are the “if mod exists” bracketed modifier lines required in that, we all have tried it both ways and it made no difference to this issue, but I dont want to cause others)
then entered the extra lines to the wp-config.php and then restarted WP again… No “Sites” drop down selection ever appears.

What might be keeping this from showing?