Ok, now i am a little lost. Remember, i am new to electronics...
The way to deal with this is to calculate the
"nominal" base current required for the app, and then about double it, by using a value
for base resistor R2 of about 1/2 the nominal value.
I am not entirely sure i understand that
Also, your values above may be wrong. Normally, the hFE value is "lower" for larger
collector currents.
What values are wrong? For the resistors, or the calculated current in the base and the the LED?
I'm curious why OP chose to switch the high side instead of using the original circuit. With this setup, the transistor is operating in the linear region and will never reach saturation.
So, there is actually a difference if the LED is in the collector side or the emitter side ?? 