I am not sure what is causing the error on workstation 10.4, but if the error occurs when the VM is imported from the OVA package, then I would try to manual create the VM from the vmdk file.
If I had to guess, it might be something to do with the an incompatibility when exporting the vm settings and OVA from ESXi 5.1 and importing this into the newer Workstation 10.4. Possibly, remove the default settings, e.g. number of CPU's, CPU reservation etc before starting the VM.
If all else fails create the vm from the vmdk file.