No idea if this is any help at all, I had this problem as well, with ActivePerl build 815.
I manually downloaded and installed PPM-2.1.7 from the uwinnipeg repos, and still had the problem. I then did "ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/PAR-588.ppd"; and now things seem OK (thank god). (I'm in the northern hemisphere BTW ... ;) If this is only telling you stufff you already know, please treat as background noise ...
