This is windows XP, so I ran "mysqld start" from the bin directory of mysql, but I got this:
Can't start server: Bind on TCP/IP port: No error
050703 17:20:34 Do you already have another mysqld server running on p
+ort: 3306
?
050703 17:20:34 Aborting
050703 17:20:34 mysqld: Shutdown Complete
This of course has nothing to do with perl, so if you want better help you should probably ask someplace specific. However, possibly your mysql had an "unclean shutdown", and left some kind of marker file in a temporary directory that makes it think it's still running when it isn't.