Hi
that seems very odd. Whenever I got an error message, for instance from an incorrectly designed chip,
it would be just a one-liner in red at the bottom of the window. I have never seen anything like you've
had. I just tried out loading a built-in chip without any problems. I'm using windows xp on a netbook, I have
the same version of tecs suite as you. I think my Java runtime installation is the same version as yours just a different build number. Just in case it might be of some help, I have uploaded a small video below that shows my java info and also me running the hardware simulator and loading a chip.
HardwareSimulatorLoadChip.avi