Queue filter errors

[Speedg33k]

First a short gush…
I am completely new to OTRS and it has impressed me like no other software has in years. Kudos to the devs and the community! /gush

On to the issue…
When clicking on the queue filter in the dashboard we are getting an “error during ajax communication”
Looking at the perl error logs we see

*** 'D:\otrs\OTRS\bin\cgi-bin\index.pl' log message at: 2014/01/28 20:05:34
Precompiler: Execute Error:
Filename:[D:\otrs\OTRS\bin\cgi-bin\index.pl]
Package:[PerlEx::Precompiler::d_::otrs::otrs::bin::cgi2dbin::index_pl]
Params[]
encountered object 'false', but neither allow_blessed nor convert_blessed settings are enabled at D:/otrs/OTRS/bin/cgi-bin/../../Kernel/System/JSON.pm line 112.
*** 'D:\otrs\OTRS\bin\cgi-bin\index.pl' log message at: 2014/01/28 20:06:01
'D:\otrs\OTRS\bin\cgi-bin\index.pl' script produced no output



This error occurred a few days ago, and then disappeared with no apparent cause or solution.
It returned this evening and seems persistant.
The queue filter drop down is not populated and only the item QUEUE is present.

I really don’t see where to go from here with troubleshooting; any hints would be greatly appreciated.

OTRS version 3.3.3 running on Windows with IIS 7.5 and perl 5.16.3