This is totally bizarre.
In my previous workplace - we had ESX5 and using the Vsphere client i was able to hit CTRL+SHIFT+F3 and turn my VM into Audit mode.
I've just tried downloading Workstation - to see if it may be an issue relating to Vsphere, but that is doing the same thing.
i've tried the onscreen keyboard - same problem exists.
Thank you for trying the pass through keyboard option - that was my next "to do" - but i won't bother after seeing your links,
I'm reluctant to P2V it because of the Hard Drive size, will try and find some old 40/80GB hard drives and see if they work still.
How frustrating!