Is Hal the only program which runs slow on your PC? You might have some hard disk or memory problem, or a virus (I hope this is not the case).
Have you tried running some system utility check (like Norton or similar)? A hard disk which is almost full or which needs to be defragmented can cause these situations. If you use Haptek characters and your system is not powerful enough, you can run into memory problems.
Well, this is what I can diagnose from here...without knowing anything about your PC.
