RedHat 9 / Fedora / (even Mandrake 9.2) on VMWare trouble configuring NIC

Hi All. - help URGENT!!! :)
I can't get past the following error messgage when I start eth0 for DHCP (I've done it specifying and not listing the DHCP server's IP)
"Determining IP information for eth0... failed"
I get this message if I run ifup eth0 or if I do it via the GUI.

I installed vmware tools (I think successfully) and when I run "vmware-tools &"  a pop box comes up and the listing for hd, floppy, nic, etc. come up with the radio buttons pressed down so I assume the drivers are there.

My initial NIC was the one it found upon installation:
79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE]

I've even tried changing it to:
AMC PCnet32

Still no luck.  I have it bound to the MAC. Also, in VMware settings the NIC is set to bridged. Also, I've tried DHCP and Assigning an IP but neither work. With the latter I get the following error: "Error, some other host already uses address". I tried to check and see if any devices were hidden in device manager in Win2k and even used VMware's article but I don't see any NIC's dimmed out.


Please note:
Before this issue, I was getting the following error but I resolved it (listed here to help other users):

"Determining IP information for eth0... failed; no link present. Check cable?". What is wrong?
Solution: Article: "Getting a DHCP Address in a Red Hat Linux 9.0 Virtual Machine" from VMware

The below did the trick; copied from VMware's site:
This problem has been seen on Mandrake, SuSE, and Red Hat guest operating systems, but is most often seen in Red Hat 9.x installs.

To work around this problem, become root (su -) and use a text editor to edit the following files in the guest operating system:
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[n]
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth[n]

Also, if it exists, edit the file
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/ifcfg-eth0

The third file is updated any time you run redhat-config-network and make changes in the Network Configuration panel.

In all cases, [n] is the number of the Ethernet adapter -- for example, eth0.

In each of the files, add the following section:

   check_link_down () {
       return 1;
   }

Then run the command ifup eth[n] (where [n] is the number of the Ethernet adapter) or restart the guest operating system.
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