JED/NED + Java

I realise this may be the wrong forum but I couldn't find one more suited to a JED/NED issue.  The problem in a nutshell is this:

1) We are on 8.03 Environment ESP7 in Windows.
2) Our apps are 7.2 x (don't ask!)
3) We cannot get JED/NED to work, and this has historically been an issue for us. Over time we have had issues such as tabs not working, screen displays incorrectly, JED not coming up ... etc.  Every time there's a java update, we struggle the same old JED issues again.

Our latest and greatest is that JED/NED will not even come up when we click on it in IOS. The Applet window pops up (twice!!) and the JED window pops up (twice!!) but never prompts with the form transfer screen (PL, SC, form ID) - Not very good for users. So I force the issue by clicking on Window, Form Transfer, and pull up HR11.  Depending on what version of Java one has installed, we get the following issues:

1) Tabs don't show onscreen (groan ... here we go again!)
2) Dates are completely blank. How do I describe this other than to say the screen does not show dates. The field isn't even tere - anything defined as a date will not show in JED - Not just the data, but the actual blank date field itself is invisible.

So here's the question, does anyone know what I could check to fix this?

I'm at my wit's end with this and have no idea what to check any more, so any help would be greatly appreciated.