crm installation problem

I can not get past the System Checks on a new CRM 2011 Installation that must connect to the database using a non-standard Port. I receive a SqlAgent$Instancename,Port# service is not running on the server error.

Here are some of my troubleshooting steps:

Tried several different DB configuration strings:

ServerName\InstanceName,PortSQLAgent$InstanceName,Port (SqlAgent$InstanceName,Port) service is not running on the ServerName
ServerName\InstanceName:PortSQLAgent$InstanceName:Port (SqlAgent$InstanceName:Port) service is not running on the ServerName
ServerName,Port\InstanceName The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found

I verified I could get to my database over the non-standard Port

I then decided to stand-up another database on a server in the same VLAN (where I will have no firewall issues) for testing purposes.

I ran into the same errors as above.

I then decided to change my database to listen on Port 1433 and was only able to get a successful DB connection when using the following DB configuration string:

ServerName\InstanceName

Armed with a successful DB Connection - I tried to come up with a successful connection string specifying the standard Port, but was unsuccessful:

ServerName\InstanceName,1433SQLAgent$InstanceName,1433 (SqlAgent$InstanceName,1433) service is not running on the ServerName
ServerName\InstanceName:1433SQLAgent$InstanceName:1433 (SqlAgent$InstanceName:1433) service is not running on the ServerName
ServerName,1433\InstanceName The requested name is valid, but no data of the requested type was found

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dan