I may not be the best one to reply, but it looks like I'm the only one around right now.

The current versions on CPAN of DBI and DBD-mysql are 1.51 and 3.0006 respectively. You might try installing those, or maybe the more recent DBI first, and see if that corrects the problem.

If you've got a reason for needing the older versions, then it's a good idea to tell us.