There have been some reports that match what you describe if the virtual optical drive is set to physical and there is no superdrive present, or if it is empty. Try changing it to be an image or remove the virtual optical drive under Settings.

Aside from the Settings button on the Virtual Machine Library window or the Settings command on the Virtual Machine menu on the VMware Fusion menu bar or the Optical Drive icon on the Status Bar one could always look in VMware Fusion menu bar > Help > VMware Fusion Help > Managing Virtual Machines > Configuring the CD/DVD Drive.

I haven't been able to get Fusion working on my MacBook Air either. I think it must have something to do with the MacBook Air not having any physical drive that VM or Windows recognises as "real". I wasted about 2 hours trying different things last night.

If I try to start up a VM that I created on my desktop MacPro, VM just crashes - it vanishes without even an error message. (Just like you are describing.)

If I try to install a fresh copy of XP from either a disk image or Remote Disk, I get the error message "no operating system found" and the install ends.

I have done searches in Google and it seems that some people using the MacBook Air's USB superdrive have got VM working but that it stops working as soon as the Superdrive is removed.

It must be a specific problem to do with VM Fusion on the MacBook Air. I hope VM read these forums and get a fix out to us!!

Anybody know how to report this bug to VM?

I'm running 10.5.2 on a MacBook Air and VMWare Fusion 1.1.1 using Windows XP/SP2.

I have the virtual DVD drive disabled per this thread. The vmware instance will start and the program will work for a while, a while being 5 minutes or so.

In fact I just timed it and it was 5 minutes on the dot to going to suspend mode.

If I switch over to some other action on leopard, the instance will put itself into suspend mode. In looking over VMWare preferences I don't see any config items for "auto-suspend", so I'm wondering why this is occurring.

Fusion doesn't have an auto-suspend feature, but XP might in the form of energy settings. If you've configured Fusion to pass battery status through to the guest, XP will know it's on battery power and may auto-suspend