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B2 Error on Maximus Extreme VI

theICEBear
Level 7
Hi guys

I am wondering if I can get some tips from around here.

I have a Maximus Extreme VI with:
Core i7 4770K overclocked at 3.9 GHz at the moment but the problem also happens at 3.5 GHz
32 GB (4x8GB) Corsair Dominator Platinium Pro RAM using factory defined timings and running as DDR3-2100
Asus GFX Titan
Asus Phoebus
LSI MegaRAID 9271-4i with 4xSamsung 840 Pro SSD disks attached
2xWD Black 4Tb harddisks
Seasonic 1000W Platinum PSU

I built it and had some issues due to the known XMP problem of the Corsair RAM. I looked it up here and set the timings manually. Then I updated from the BIOS that came with the board to 0711 (latest on Asus public site) and since then I have gotten pretty regularly that the boot up gets stuck with q code: B2 on the LED. If I reset the system a random number of times it finally boots shows the WebBIOS of the RAID card and continues through the BIOS to boot into Windows and runs like a dream.

Now I am worried about the B2 thing. It is an issue and I don't want any issues since I want this to be a 24/7 oc'ed PC not some experimental hot bed. So is there something I can do that doesn't involve me giving up and having to buy a non-Asus board (a friend of mine has the same basic components sans the LSI and SSD stuff on a Gigabyte Sniper G5 with absolutely no issues) or reducing the number of RAM which is not an option for work related reasons.
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15 REPLIES 15

theICEBear
Level 7
I tried over a couple of days and the Legacy Option ROM first option did not help either. I am not sure what I am going to do now, my choices are rapidly approaching: Remove the LSI card and use the frankly less good Intel RAID or buy and try another motherboard. I'd rather not choose either of these options to be frank, because I really like the optimized build of the MB (Asus having been my preferred brand for over a decade now) and I have had pretty bad experiences with the Intel RAID a couple of years ago (bugs not getting fixed until a new hardware version was out).

So any suggestions are welcome at this point.

Shamino
Moderator
heres what im thinkin,
pheobus in x8_4
LSI in x8_3

Shamino
Moderator
or actually just lsi in x8_3

theICEBear
Level 7
I will attempt it tomorrow and see what happens (I have to do a bit of overtime at the moment so my time is a bit limited).

Hi again. My earlier assertion that the LSI card was the problem was a misdiagnosis by me because it did boot a few times without the LSI in earlier. But today I removed the lsi intending to switch to the Intel Raid and took out the Phoebus card earlier for the above mentioned test thus leaving only the Titan card in there. Now it almost consistently goes to b2 state all the time in fact empirically the problem seemed to be much more apparent with only the Titan in there. Apparently the titan card is the problem.

I did have minor successes by completely powering off my system and switching off my PSU then turning it back on. It seems this helps the system boot much more consistently. I've also experimented with clearing the CMOS using the back panel button, but that has made no impact on the number of occasions I see the B2 error.

If I disable the PCIE lane for the Titan card and boot into Windows using the Intel GPU I have no problems what so ever. I have also just updated to the latest BIOS posted (0038) but that had no effect on my issue. I think it is either the combo of the A2 port and Titan or either the PCIE port or my Titan is faulty. RMA is a bit of a problem (involves overseas shipping and I don't have the original packaging anymore it has been sent to recycling) so I have to be sure before I start dealing with that sort of problem.

Any new suggestions anyone because right now my setup is not booting regularly using the components I have.

In the meantime I have fully confirmed that the Titan card is the source of the problem either because of some BIOS setting (unlikely) or because it has somehow become faulty. I moved it to the A! PCIE port after acquiring a slightly smaller air cooler but it did not work in that position either and still did not post past B2.

I will RMA the Asus Titan card next week and see what happens.