Best guess is that the initial page the browser tries to visit uses java applets and when it invokes java, something goes wrong and the browser (and java) crash. Try changing your home page to something that doesn't contain java (yes, hard to do when you can't run the browser). If you're using mozilla or firefox, try renaming your .mozilla directory. If you're on windows using IE, then I don't know how to do it. There is probably a registry setting, but I have no idea what it is (I use windows only sparingly, and don't use IE).
Once you've changed the initial page and can get the browser running, then I would uninstall java and the java plug-in and reinstall with the latest version.
If you post the hs_err_pidXXXX.log file, may be able to help determine the cause of the crash.
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