I've tested this with versions 1.10.1 and 1.10.2 against a vCenter 4.1 server and various ESX 4.1 and ESXi 4.1 servers.
The returned power state (after making sure the VMware Tools are running) is always 1226 decimal for a machine that's powered on. I gather from reading posts here that 1000 is an internal code, but 226 translates to "tools running, powered on, resetting".
For a VM that does not have the tools installed the returned status always 136 decimal, which translates to "powered on, resetting".
So in my environment the resetting bit is set no matter what the actual status of the virtual machine is, as long as it is powered on, even if the vmware tools are not installed.
Has anyone else come across this?