[Blind-sysadmins] debian 9.3 as guest on vmware workstation 14, win10 host

Hello, I'm attempting to do an install of debian 9.3 x64 as a guest in workstation 14. The host OS is win10 v1709. I've read compatibility issues and have confirmed I am not using accelerated 3d graphics in the vm, and am using the LSI virtual scsi adapter in the vm. I'm using orca software speech for the install. At different points during the install speech stops and I'm assuming the vm has frozen. This does not happen at the same point of the install. The vm has 16GB of ram and a quad core processor for hardware. Suggestions welcome. Thanks. Dave.