vmware 4.x esxi – kill virtual machine stuck powering off

Logon to SSH or console and complete the following (WINXP-12 is name of machine causing me greif)

~ # ps | grep WINXP-12
39770348      vmm0:WINXP-12
39790829 39799011 mks:WINXP-12     /bin/vmx
39790834 39799011 vcpu-0:WINXP-12  /bin/vmx

~ # kill -9 39790834