At my job, we're migrating to Ubuntu 12.04 from 10.10 (we skipped a generation), so everyone needs to make one or more new Virtual Machines for 12.04 on their Windows 7 workstation. The problem is, only some have had success while most encounter a hang during install. I was tasked with researching this problem and here are my findings (while somewhat inconclusive)

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Player, using versions 4.0.2, 4.0.4, and 5.0.0 but every install hangs at "retrieving file 55 of 129."

Additionally I have installed before updating the VMware tools, as well as after (one can pre-download them) with every install hanging at "retrieving file 55 of 129."

The file i was using for the above two is called: ubuntu-12.04-desktop-amd64.iso

I have burned a disc with ubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso and tried to install it, and later tried ubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-i386.iso (which is not what i want but i wanted to see if it would work), but both times I get

"PXE-E53: No boot filename recieved

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.

Operating System not found"

This is all in VMware and the goal is to find a settings recipe that will allow an unbroken 64bit Ubuntu 12.04 install from an .iso hosted on the Windows OS.

Thank you in advance to anyone with ideas!