I'm in the same boat.
The only way I've managed to get a 'successful' install is by using the DVD installer (from here) and turning off the video acceleration.
It allows me to get to a desktop but I'm unable to change the resolution from 800*600, it's very slow to respond and unable to check for updates.
There may be other problems but I've not had time to check everything just yet.
I seem to recall 17 being a bit of a pain in Workstation 8 due to Gnome 3's requirements.
If anyone has any suggestions I will test them where I can.
And if it makes any odds I'm running:
Latest Workstation 9
Win7 64-bit host
Intel i7 3770
64-bit guests are assigned 8gb RAM, 2 CPU cores and a suitable drive space