I don't like the way your getting different results.
After you recovered the partition you were able to access the drive normally and even run a AV scan on all the files.
Now your back to getting errors on the drive.
I think you have the best idea, you may not need a new laptop though, maybe you can recover with the Dell disk and run some diagnostics on the drive.
Also keep in mind support ends for XP in April anyway, you may want to move him forward now.
I'm very sorry your still having problems but at least you got the important data back, thats the irreplaceable part, reinstalling is just a matter of spending a lot of time.
Dave