Not sure why, but it worked!

Ran install with loopback installed and it failed, said there was a modem on com1. Removed it and tried again and it passed. I did try both ways last week with failing results. The only difference I see, beside the beers over the weekend, is running install from cpan shell, rather than cpanm from command window prompt.

Either way, it was enough of a hint and it worked. PerlMonks comes through again. Thanks folks!