Seems I found the problem...  A leftover gauge from the various blocks wouldn't delete from the gauges folder (cs.b757.vc.CAB).  I tried again to uninstall version 1.4 after finding no one having this problem.  Instead of using Window's default 'Add & Remove Programs' I ran the CS uninstaller for the various 'Blocks'.  The one gauge above I found still sitting in the gauges folder after 1.4 of the 757 was deleted.  Once I manually deleted that gauge I installed 2.1 and performance of the 757 was as it should be (outstanding in FS9).  In essence FS9 was trying to run two of the same gauges at the same time.  2.1 has a replacement for the gauge mentioned above but if their both in the 'Gauges' folder they end up running at the same time causing a very noticeable degradation in performance...

I'm glade I found the issue but I still can't figure out how others upgrading to 2.1 haven't had a problem with this gauge being removed during the 1.4 uninstall...  :-X