Java won't work

[Holy Cactus]

A bit ago I went to the Apple dev. website to try and look for the latest pre-released Java update for my iMac 10.5.8. I downloaded one of them and now I'm unable to run .jar files. When I double click on the file to run it nothing happens and then after awhile a notice pops up telling me to check the console for possible error messages. I then tried running java from terminal via the "java -jar" command. This is what came up:


Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:676)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:124)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:317)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:280)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:252)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:375)


I've searched all over the web for a solution and the only one I come up with is re-installing my OS but I really don't want to have to do it (don't ask why because it's complicated). I was wondering if there was any other way to fix this problem? I would appreciate and e-mail if you think you know how. Thanks!

 

[RRmalvado]

Blessing in disguise?

I would try downloading the latest Apple Java update manually and reinstalling it.

 

[Holy Cactus]

I tried and it says "you already have a newer version of java installed" and then quits.