After starting an existing game, during load it returns to launcher with error

What I expected to happen was...:
Game should load and start char in world where I last exited.

What actually happened was...:
Returns to Launcher 1.6.61 with a log summary showing loaded parameters leading up to a crash detail starting with 'fatal error in Java Runtime'

Steps to Reproduce:
Happens every time I attempt to launch a minecraft game even create a new world.

1. A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
   #
2. EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x00007ff961146c17, pid=2328, tid=9140
   #
3. JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_77-b03) (build 1.8.0_77-b03)
4. Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (25.77-b03 mixed mode windows-amd64 compressed oops)
5. Problematic frame:
6. C [ig9icd64.dll+0x16c17]
   #
7. Failed to write core dump. Minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows
   #
8. An error report file with more information is saved as:
9. C:\Users\pmk07\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\hs_err_pid2328.log
   #
10. If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
11. http://bugreport.java.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
12. The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
13. See problematic frame for where to report the bug.