Hello,
we have not heard about this issue before. I wonder if there could be a firewall which prevents connection to the localhost TCP port.
Very quick test is to run FreeMASTER and run "telnet localhost 41000" in a 'cmd' command line. If you get a connection error, then I would bet someone (firewall) blocks the connection. If telnet connects well, then it will be an issue of Chrome engine and we will need to analyze it further.
Note: in telnet, a successful connection means you will get a blank screen without errors. By typing { } as an empty/invalid JSON-RPC command, you should get a response something like:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":"","error":{"code":-32600,"message":"Unknown error"}}
Regards,
Michal