Jeff,
Hardy Alpha has an updated version of the kernel that you may want try.
Not sure if it will help improve your situation though.
http://www.ubuntu.com/testing. Also I'm not sure which version of
vmware you are running, but you may want to see if there is an updated
version available to test
Unfortuantly this is qustion or may be vmware related issue.
HPET was enabled to make ubuntu suitible for mobile usage and make it consume
less power.
http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/faq.php
More about timers and vmware you can find here:
