Hi David45, HERE is a dell support journal on the hal.dll, chances are you might have to reinstall your OP.
My Dell Desktop just start with a issue saying Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \system32\hal.dll (Please re-install a copy of the above file)  I am not sure what to do. I have to disks to even find the file on. Any help detailed step by step instructions would be very much helpful.
Missing or Corrupt \system32\hal.dll