VMware Converter - Error: Unable to obtain hardware information

While trying to use VMware Converter stand-alone version 4.01 to convert a Windows 2008 R2 vm, I kept getting the error "Unable to obtain hardware information". I found this post which mentioned faking out the system by changing the source VM OS, so I gave that a try and changed my source VM from Windows 2008 R2 to Windows Vista, then tried to convert and low and behold, it worked like a charm!