Dell Dimension 3000 Problem: Missing HAL.DLL plus Cannot get to BIOS setup

A friend is having an issue with her Dimension 3000 computer.  She has brought it to me for help.  All of her business files are there and she never backed anything up.  This one is a tough one:

When it boots up she gets the BIOS splash screen for a few seconds then the screen goes black for 10 seconds or so and the error message displays saying there is a corrupted or missing HAL.DLL and it needs to be replaced.  If this were the only problem, I could follow a published outline to rebuild boot.ini and hal.dll.  But there's a gotcha: I cannot get into the BIOS setup (doesn't respond to F2)  nor get to a boot menu (F12).  And since it does find a hard disk (although with a nonfunctional copy of Windows XP) it searches no further, so I cannot use a Windows CD nor a USB flash drive to boot.  I would have to get into the BIOS setup  and change the boot device order, but  I can't get there.  So, I am stumped.

There must be some remedy.  And I have a number of resources at hand.  I just don't know what path to follow.  Resources:

1. Another desktop with a spare IDE connector plus the power and IDE cables (that computer also uses XP pro)
2. Her original DELL drivers disk and Windows XP installation disk.
3. USB flash drives
4. Some old IDE hard drives that could be wiped and reformatted (but wouldn't I need to get to the BIOS?)

Here are some possible paths to repair that I have considered.  Do any of them hold promise?

1. Remove and replace the CMOS battery to see if that would at least allow me to access the BIOS setup
2. I considered unplugging the hard drive cable so the computer would read the CD-ROM drive, but after thinking about it I realize that IDE drives are not hot swappable so I couldn't do anything to repair it in that machine.  And the Dimension 3000 has no SATA ports.
3. Remove the drive and put it into another computer, then use the Windows CD to repair it.  But that could be tricky because it might not recognize the defective copy of Windows: i.e. it might try to repair my own copy of Windows. Plus, my machine has an ASus mobo, so installing the drivers might be a problem.
4. Start over with a fresh copy of Windows on a wiped IDE drive.  But I would have to install the OS and drivers from a different machine, and that could prove difficult.
5. Tell her that I can't do anything, and please take it to a shop or buy a new computer and move the files to the new computer.

Any ideas?

TDinDC