Has anyone had the problem where the guest nic doesn't work in vmware?

I have installed vmware many times on i386 gutsy boxes here @ work and always had no problems with guests.

At home I have a 64-bit hardy host and vmware installs (after any-any 116 patch), but when I startup the guest, the networking doesn't work. The nic has a static ip, is assigned to the bridged interface, and can ping itself, but can't ping anything else.

Anyone have ideas?