Total stab in the dark (since your post has a low signal-to-noise ratio - basically "TL;DR"), but seeing how you could get it to work with CDs but not DVDs, maybe you're lacking UDF (common DVD file system, while CDs mostly use ISO9660) drivers? According to Wikipedia the 9xes have support for 1.02 and none of the newer ones.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-08-11, 16:44:

Total stab in the dark (since your post has a low signal-to-noise ratio - basically "TL;DR"), but seeing how you could get it to work with CDs but not DVDs, maybe you're lacking UDF (common DVD file system, while CDs mostly use ISO9660) drivers? According to Wikipedia the 9xes have support for 1.02 and none of the newer ones.

"your post has a low signal-to-noise ratio - basically "TL;DR""

*deep sigh*
This is the first time I'm using a forum deliberately and consciously not being as concise and short-spoken as humanly possible because I, too, don't like wasting people's time, see.
I have experienced time and again that people will not address the actual issue otherwise, like insisting it has to be a faulty IDE controller or a defective DVD drive, etc.
Now that I'm putting in more effort into my post just so that people will see I'm not a lazy bum, that I'm not too stupid to google or too ignorant to provide crucial information, this is what I get.
No offense, honestly, I'm just snickering at the irony.

As to the constructive part of your reply: I could get it to work with CDs because of forcing Windows 98 SE to use legacy DOS 16-bit drivers that, naturally, were never meant to support a medium that wasn't available prior to 1997, such as the DVD.
This notebook, including its DVD drive, was released in 1999 with Windows 98 in mind. The problem lies with the Secondary IDE controller.

elszgensa wrote on 2023-08-11, 16:44:

Total stab in the dark (since your post has a low signal-to-noise ratio - basically "TL;DR"), but seeing how you could get it to work with CDs but not DVDs, maybe you're lacking UDF (common DVD file system, while CDs mostly use ISO9660) drivers? According to Wikipedia the 9xes have support for 1.02 and none of the newer ones.

This is a forum for people with the attention span necessary to deal with DOS memory management. In my opinion, saying 'TL;DR' on someone asking for help with a complex technical issue which has them stumped was unnecessarily rude and unwelcoming.

Did you install WinME clean, or did you just run setup as an upgrade to Win98?

Generally the reasons I've seen for the yellow icon:
Driver conflict
Device resource conflict
Failing port/drive

If you open of the device in device manager, it gives you a hint on why it doesn't work correctly. You can also look through your resource list to make sure everything has been set correctly to the resources you expect.

Please make sure you remove any DOS CD drivers from config.sys/autoexec.bat. As you have seen, it isn't really a fix anyway. As it's not clear what steps were undertaken installing drivers or OS, you may want to install WinME completely clean without any extra drivers and check the device manager at that point so one can see what is said.

I have played with a fujitsu when it was new in 2000. It had WinME. It was a nice machine. No problems with it.

Exclusively clean installs. Why would anyone bother with mere upgrade files from 98 SE to Me in the year 2023?

It is 100 % certain that it's a driver conflict, not a failing drive. The drive is, as mentioned above, in working condition, no doubt that whatsoever.

Hint in Device Manager is a classic "Code 10"; try updating the drivers.
The mainboard drivers are up to snuff and literally everything else the mainboard provides is working flawlessly, including the USB 1.1.

WinMeOver wrote on 2023-08-12, 16:55:

Exclusively clean installs. Why would anyone bother with mere upgrade files from 98 SE to Me in the year 2023?

Unfamiliarity. I've seen people today not know they can do this when so many WinME disks are labeled "upgrade". But this piece of information is now known about your install, so we can move on.

WinMeOver wrote on 2023-08-12, 16:55:

It is 100 % certain that it's a driver conflict, not a failing drive. The drive is, as mentioned above, in working condition, no doubt that whatsoever.

Did you try the drive in another notebook?

I would have tended to agree with you that if it seemed to work in another OS as you mentioned, that it can be considered "Working". But considering stock drivers and manufacturer drivers don't just "bitrot" and stop working, then we don't have much left to discuss on drivers when this is considered to be a clean system, unless there is something lurking in device resources, or a strange device I don't know about in your machine.

Now it is also possible the drive itself is 100% fine. But the evidence tends to point to that there is an error being triggered by the hardware in your notebook, so unless you can start swapping parts (motherboard, power supply, drive) and testing against other parts, then we have not narrowed down or eliminated this. Win9x IDE drivers are different than WinXP, so it could be that Win9x drivers were not written with better fallbacks in the face of early hardware impending failure signs.

After I sent the earlier message, I remembered diagnosing an issue on today's Linux on early hardware failure indications with sata errors periodically appearing in the logs and it was hard to know what triggered it. It progressively got worse, but through sleuthing, I identified the issue (power supply). The driver on Linux goes through cycles of handling such errors such as repeating the command, slowing down the link, and eventually complete device resets to try again. I could continue to use the machine, and indeed, never really have data corruption. Linux is a robust system, but one that might hide the problem until it gets markedly worse (everything starts running slower and slower). The Win9x driver is probably not like that and perhaps very unforgiving, but maybe the WinXP driver is better. My suggestion is to try booting a live linux from a USB CD-ROM if it is possible on this computer and try using the IDE CD-ROM and look at the logs for errors. I did something similar to stress test the system I had without fear of loosing data, and it gives alot of information on what is going on. You could try to look at it some more under WinXP, but I don't know how to monitor for errors there myself.

the3dfxdude wrote on 2023-08-12, 18:39:

Did you try the drive in another notebook? […]
Show full quote

Did you try the drive in another notebook?

I would have tended to agree with you that if it seemed to work in another OS as you mentioned, that it can be considered "Working". But considering stock drivers and manufacturer drivers don't just "bitrot" and stop working, then we don't have much left to discuss on drivers when this is considered to be a clean system, unless there is something lurking in device resources, or a strange device I don't know about in your machine.

Now it is also possible the drive itself is 100% fine. But the evidence tends to point to that there is an error being triggered by the hardware in your notebook, so unless you can start swapping parts (motherboard, power supply, drive) and testing against other parts, then we have not narrowed down or eliminated this. Win9x IDE drivers are different than WinXP, so it could be that Win9x drivers were not written with better fallbacks in the face of early hardware impending failure signs.

After I sent the earlier message, I remembered diagnosing an issue on today's Linux on early hardware failure indications with sata errors periodically appearing in the logs and it was hard to know what triggered it. It progressively got worse, but through sleuthing, I identified the issue (power supply). The driver on Linux goes through cycles of handling such errors such as repeating the command, slowing down the link, and eventually complete device resets to try again. I could continue to use the machine, and indeed, never really have data corruption. Linux is a robust system, but one that might hide the problem until it gets markedly worse (everything starts running slower and slower). The Win9x driver is probably not like that and perhaps very unforgiving, but maybe the WinXP driver is better. My suggestion is to try booting a live linux from a USB CD-ROM if it is possible on this computer and try using the IDE CD-ROM and look at the logs for errors. I did something similar to stress test the system I had without fear of loosing data, and it gives alot of information on what is going on. You could try to look at it some more under WinXP, but I don't know how to monitor for errors there myself.

Now that is rather interesting info, thank you very much. Cannot be ruled out that this is the case.
All I know is, if I'm using the drive on 98 SE via the DOS driver workaround, it handles CDs flawlessly. Never would have guessed the reason for this might be that legacy drivers are a tad more forgiving with drives that are starting to fail.
Maybe I should just give up and shell out the €8 or so for a replacement drive on Ebay then.

Perhaps. I mean it is still a guess there is a problem with the drive itself. It wouldn't hurt to try another drive if you want to acquire another. If you are going to go to the extent of working on the inside of the machine, you might as well take it apart and do an inspection now before you put an order in, and see things like condition of the cable inside (if used), the condition of battery, etc, for other signs. Although it can be a quick release switch or screw just holding it in so maybe it would be faster than a tear down.

I am not sure what DOS drivers might be capable of (could be limited), but on the Linux side of things, it could play with ATA speeds and DMA as a way to deal with an issue, and that can solve the problem enough that it doesn't seem to be there. This is why I am thinking, maybe if you could monitor a verbose logging of drive activity in any of the configurations, you might see something.

WinMeOver wrote on 2023-08-13, 18:53:

All I know is, if I'm using the drive on 98 SE via the DOS driver workaround, it handles CDs flawlessly. Never would have guessed the reason for this might be that legacy drivers are a tad more forgiving with drives that are starting to fail.
Maybe I should just give up and shell out the €8 or so for a replacement drive on Ebay then.

If that is all it cost then having a spare may be a good idea. If it works in DOS but not Win9x then it is a driver issue. You cannot have the DOS drivers loading when launching Win9x, known fact that they interfer with with 9x drivers.
Rem out the config.sys and autoexec.bat cdrom drivers and see what happens (maybe you already tried but do it again)

> exclamation point at the Secondary IDE controller

imo this excludes optical drive as the problem, you can even unplug it and I bet that exclamation point will persist unless there is in fact some dos driver being loaded and no drive will make it skip loading.