Then the issue is with an incompatible NIC on the laptop. If it's not on the HCL (VMWare Hardware Compatibility List) then it may/may not work and is considered unsupported by VMWare, which looks to be your case. However, I know it could be done to where you add the driver into a custom build install since the oem.tgz file doesn't have the certified version of your NIC, but you can add it to the file. Maybe someone else has already done such and could be of further assistance here since I never did it myself.
Regards, CSSMP