The problem is the JUMPER settings on some Hard disks.  Any Laptop drive with your port type should work.  Here is the difference I have noted with OEM drives with OEM systems like that.

In PCs, Dell, Gateway, and some others use drives where there is a jumper position they use, that indicates to the drive as Master, no slave, a "SINGLE MASTER."  You can use a slave on IDE port 2, an Optical Drive though, but nothing on the primary with the jumper in that position.  If you noticed most jumpers are Vertical, well, these come with jumpers in the Horizontal position, this is sometimes an undocumented feature....

Now, say you place a Slave on the primary IDE bus, neither device works, because the jumper is set to Single Master.  They do that to MAKE you think their drive is OEM for that PC, and it really isn't true.  The BIOS of the laptop would have to CHECK the ID of the HDD, and if it is not a DELL approved one, not POST in the bios...  I do not know any BIOS that do this specifically...   

Also, with Dell and some other canned PCs, if you use the drive as a MASTER with slave, and there is no slave drive, the PC won't boot because the BIOS of the PC is looking for a slave, and it is not there, or the HDD is hanging it up because it did not detect a slave...   

This has happened to me, I place a regular HDD in the DELL I bought at Best Buy, set on master in the VERTICAL jumper position, the PC hangs.  If I put it on the HORIZONTAL "Single Master" the PC boots with no slave drive.  It depends on the system really, and a LAP TOP should be no different...

If you use that DELL OEM drive in a home brew PC with no slave, and have the HDD set at MASTER, it hangs...  If you use SINGLE MASTER it works...  I know it sounds stupid, but it happens. 

Anyhow, any LapTop drive should work, just note and use the right jumper position.  It should work with the jumper in the proper position.  There is nothing about the HDD itself that makes it incompatible with your laptop, unless the Laptop bios does not like it for some reason.  Maybe it did not respond correctly to a ATA command.  I had a drive that worked in one PC with SMART enabled, but not in another because it failed the Smart ATA inquiry...  Strange stuff....

i just had a weird issue with my laptop, it crashed so i restrted then all i got was a black screen with

L 99 99 99 99 etc etc for about 8 lines lol, i reinstalled xp but didnt reformat and it seems to be fine now lol

have you tried re-writing the MBR, or try using a linux recovery disk, they are usually good for troubled HDD's

ok mate, tell us how it goes