FATAL: invalid value for option 'LC_MESSAGES': 'en_US'

Alright, new issue...hope it's minor.

Installed Cygwin and PostgreSQL clean following my own instructions
posted to this list, but when I get to the step to fire up the
PostgreSQL engine itself via

$ net start postmaster

I get the gloriously useless
____________________________________________________________
The postmaster service is starting.
The postmaster service could not be started.

The service did not report an error.

More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3534.
____________________________________________________________

And for anyone who has ever typed in "NET HELPMSG 3534", you know that
you end up with "The service did not report an error".

Note this install is identical in every respect but one with the
install I did on my test box, which worked just great. The one
difference is that I switched in the Cygwin1.dll nightly snapshot right
in the beginning of this install (so it was in place when I did
'initdb'), whereas in the initial install I only dropped that in AFTER
having trouble getting psql to connect via sockets. However, I have
ruled that issue out by restoring the distribution cygwin1.dll,
resetting CygIPC, deleting the /usr/share/postgresql/data directory, and
then redoing the 'initdb' command to initialize the database (while
using the distribution version of cygwin1.dll), and in either case, I
end up with postmaster failing to start.

As for the useless NET HELPMSG info, being the handy-dandy Windows guy
that I am (translation: I have to deal with this crap regularly), I
checked the Application Event Log, where the error message gave me a
little more insight in that PostgreSQL claims it did not have privilege
to execute...though it was vague on what exactly.

To be safe, I re-typed the password for the 'postgres' account in the
'postmaster' NT service, but no luck.

I then checked /var/log/postmaster.log, which contained
____________________________________________________________
FATAL: invalid value for option 'LC_MESSAGES': 'en_US'
____________________________________________________________

More research led me to the file
/usr/share/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf

at the end of which is just such a setting for LC_MESSAGES. But that's
as far as I get.

I'm still scratching my head as to why one box works just fine and the
other does not, and why this particular message. Thoughts? Ideas?

P.S. Though once again, it should not play a part, I thought I better
mention that this new PC is running 2 CPUs, whereas my test box
only had 1. Could this be an issue? Is PostgreSQL sensitive
to dual CPU boxes?