Hi Reeza,
Thanks for your reply.
For VirtualBox (5.0.10), I followed instructions from here: SASUniversityEditionQuickStartVirtualBox.pdf
Before writing this response, I decided to give it another try so I could provide the exact message and when/where it happened., But this time, during Step 3, I un-checked something for a Sound Card. I didn't do that the first time. THIS MUST HAVE HELPED - the VM actually works now!!
I'm not going to bother with VMWare now. 🙂