Windows 8.1 hangs in Fusion 5.0.4

Hi community,

I'm having tons of hangs and long pauses using Windows 8.1 in VMware Fusion 5.0.4 (1435862).

Has anyone been able to fix this?  I removed the USB controller from the VM's hardware based on some information I found, but the VM still hangs for long periods at seemingly random times.

Thanks for any pointers!