CORRECTION TO MY LAST POST:
I seems that I didn't quite test my last post solution thouroughly enough. The ONLY reliable way that I have found to ensure that a restart doesn't hang, as mentioned in previous posts, is to uncheck the "Connect at power on" checkbox for the CD-ROM. I've tried a whole bunch of other combinations today and this is the only configuration that gurantees that VMWare Player 5 doesn't hang at restart.
Thanks,
Bill Vallance