Hum, The only think I can think of is the driver station may be using a different java version if you have multiple java installs on your computer. I cant access the smart dashboard code from this laptop but when I get home I will make sure its not checking for any weird arguments from the driver station.
The other thing you can try (If you have a java JDK installed and correctly added to your path variable) is to start the dashboard with the driver station then open the command prompt and type
That will list the java process ID for every java application running, remember the number associated with smart dashboard then you can run the command
Code:
jstack <Number Here>
That will print out a list of all the java threads currently running and the stack trace to go with them, if you can copy them then post them back here I can look through them and see if there is anything out of the ordinary, (Like its stuck trying to load a plugin or didn't start a thread correctly)
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SUPER-TUBE! - dlavery [more] 
10-02-2015, 14:37
Threaded Mode