I thought I was the only one getting this but I just saw the first post of another user running into the same thing ....
This problem has been seen on 2k3-32bit and Windows 7 - 64bit and may occur with Workstation7 and VMplayer3

When trying to do a fresh installation the setup fails with non-helpful message "The MSI fails" - this only applies to fresh install - not upgrades.

WORKAROUND:

this is a stupid bug in the installer - it does not even consider that you are not upgrading but doing a fresh install.
The setup then tries to uninstall a non-existing earlier version.
It tries to find this non-existing earlier installation but gives up as it does not find anything ...

So you must run the installer with a special command line to tell it that you are really planning to do a fresh install and that uninstalling older versions really is neither necessary nor wanted.

VMware-player-3.0.0-203739.exe /z "action"="install"

Ulli
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