Grr as well as bump. Same problem also.
As a sidenote when fiddling around with nic's they can sometime "disappear" but can be shown again with the KB:
VMware KB: Removing hidden or ghosted devices from a Windows virtual machine
ye olde...
- set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
- devmgmt.msc
- Shown hidden devices
Ooops: There seems to be a description and some solutions here: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020078
I'll try them out with my win2008r2 box.