This could be caused by a large number of problems, some of which may be expensive or time consuming to fix. I suggest uninstalling all Java off of your computer, restarting, then re-download and install; that's what fixed this error for me and hopefully it will for you.
Note: you'll have to reset your system variables too as they'll be cleared/altered when you uninstall Java, and I also suggest installing your jre into the jre folder in the jdk folder to keep everything in order and easier to trace. And just out of interest, could you tell me if you're using a 32 or 64bit OS?