Our Dell D810 Latitude started giving us problems several weeks ago. We attempted to reformat the hard drive by reloading the OS. We had to do this once before, so when we couldn't fix the computer we thought that it might work to try this. The problem is that when we try to reformat the hard drive and re-load the OS (which is Windows XP) the computer gets stuck and says that it can't complete setup. Once it gets towards the end of this procedure and attempts to install Windows XP I start getting messages like this:

Setup cannot copy the file: s3sav4.inf, then it gives me 3 options. To retry hit enter (make sure the Windows XP disk is in the drive...which it is). To skip this file hit ESC (please note that if you skip this file Setup may not complete and Windows XP may not work properly). And Hit F3 to exit setup.

I hit enter for retry and it doesn't work, so I hit ESC and then it said it could not copy all these files: (I hit ESC every time trying to see if I could get to a new screen)

setup cannot copy file: s3trio3d.inf
sgiu.inf
sis300i.inf
sis6306.inf
sisgr.inf
sisv6326.inf
smi.inf
spx.inf
spxports.inf
stalport.inf
swt.inf
tgiu.inf
tourp.exe
trid.inf
tridkb.inf

It is still on that screen and I could hit ESC all day I assume and just keep getting file names. Does anyone have any suggestions on a way to fix this. A friend says it is a problem with the BIOS system. Is there a way to fix that? Since my PC works I can download files onto a flash drive and try to install them that way, if they will fix the problem.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do.

Very often it is the hard drive that is bad... Not usually a BIOS issue if the BIOS is up to date.

Try again a cold boot. But if the error recurs, the hard drive must remain suspect.