Received by 3090 FE today - having weird issue with my z390 asrock taichi mb - "b2" error code

Joined
Jul 6, 2006
Messages
42
This one has me stumped. Installed my new card today, fired up Apex Legends and played it for about an hour or so - all of a sudden the game hard locks / graphics frozen / audio stops, can't do anything. I look at my motherboard LED error code and it has "b2" - I reboot....and it won't POST - only shows "b2".(which seems to indicate gpu error) I took out the 3090, put my old card back in - boots up fine. Put the 3090 back in, boots up fine - played a bit of apex again - same exact thing happens. Now I notice I can pop the CMOS battery and then the computer will boot. If I am in windows and reboot.....it won't reboot, gets stuck on the b2 error until I pop the CMOS again. Any ideas? My power supply is a brand new seasonic 850w. CPU is i9-9900k. Hope I don't have to RMA this card and wait 6 months to get a new one, heh.
 
Starting here... follow the pic. Then run DDU with the latest drivers. Remove any OC's you may have especially on the card, these don't have much room.
daisy chain.jpg
 
Doesn't mean it changes from being the wrong way of doing it...

Doesn't make it as important as the picture is claiming it to be.
It really is confusing that the 4th photo is ok, but 5th isn't.
 
I'm using 2 cables from the powersupply (seasonic prime tx-850) to the nvidia adapter. I tried swapping those cables out as well, just to be sure. I'm thinking of heading to Microcenter ot pick up a different PSU, just to double check to see if that is the problem. If I leave the computer off for a period of time, the b2 error clears without having to reset the CMOS battery.
 
I'm using 2 cables from the powersupply (seasonic prime tx-850) to the nvidia adapter. I tried swapping those cables out as well, just to be sure. I'm thinking of heading to Microcenter ot pick up a different PSU, just to double check to see if that is the problem. If I leave the computer off for a period of time, the b2 error clears without having to reset the CMOS battery.
Are you vertically mounting the card with an adapter ?
 
Doesn't make it as important as the picture is claiming it to be.
It really is confusing that the 4th photo is ok, but 5th isn't.
Shitty advise is shitty advice...fucking up the fundamentals is asking for trouble...
 
Are you trolling ? Seriously just can't get if there's sacrcasm I'm missing.

Why would I be trolling?
There was a picture posted. With no explanation as why it's supposed to be like that. No proof. Here, have a picture, follow it, don't ask question who or why made it. It's a picture, on the internet.
In fact, the cards in the picture look to be older FE cards, 1xxx series or even older, not 2xxx or 3xxx. So I assume the photo is old.
Meanwhile I said that I've always been using one cable and it never created any issue for me, and I manually overclock my cards. Always.
 
Are you vertically mounting the card with an adapter ?
not exactly sure what you mean - the card is mounted normally - but I did lay my case on its side, just to make sure the heaviness of the card wasn't causing an issue - no difference. I'm not using a gpu stand or anything like that.
 
Why would I be trolling?
There was a picture posted. With no explanation as why it's supposed to be like that. No proof. Here, have a picture, follow it, don't ask question who or why made it. It's a picture, on the internet.
In fact, the cards in the picture look to be older FE cards, 1xxx series or even older, not 2xxx or 3xxx. So I assume the photo is old.
Meanwhile I said that I've always been using one cable and it never created any issue for me, and I manually overclock my cards. Always.
That picture is an older one from EVGA but seasonic has one also for high power draw cards, the fourth is ok because if the daisy chained connection can not supply the needed power the other pcie connection will be able to for a short period. I'm sure you having zero issue in with your cards makes both Seasonic's and EVGA's advice incorrect.

Seasonic's picture
 
The logic of the "it works for me so your diagram must be un-informed" is astounding. Diagram 4 works in a 3 PCI-E situation because 8pin 2 and and 8pin 3 will not pull 150W each. The other possible diagram internally could be that all 3 are not designed to pull 150W each and rather subdivide the max wattage pull across 3 8 pins. This still reduces the load the individual 8 pin is drawing from and potentially allows more stable power draw.
 
Every reviewer out there is using 2 cables and Jayz2cents and pauls hardware are also using 2 cables. Must be the correct way?
 
Why would I be trolling?
There was a picture posted. With no explanation as why it's supposed to be like that. No proof. Here, have a picture, follow it, don't ask question who or why made it. It's a picture, on the internet.
In fact, the cards in the picture look to be older FE cards, 1xxx series or even older, not 2xxx or 3xxx. So I assume the photo is old.
Meanwhile I said that I've always been using one cable and it never created any issue for me, and I manually overclock my cards. Always.


Because the 3090 is a 350+ Watt video card, which means it's going to suck around 30 Amps through the power leads when under load.

There are three 12V leads in both the 6-pin and 8-pin PCI-E harnesses, and the ATX standards calls for just 18AWG. When only using a single harness, that's about 10 Amps being pumped through a single 18-24" cable lead of only 18AWG. 16AWG would be the absolute bare minimum that I would use for that much electrical current, with a strong desire to use 14AWG or even 12AWG.

Then there's another concern: the PSU's internal PCB circuit traces going to each PCI-E cable harness connector may also be inadequate for that kind of load, hence why PSUs are specifically designed to have two or more PCI-E cable harness connectors. Alas, most *good* PSU's have outstanding overcurrent protection to prevent catastrophic failure...but what about the cheaply made PSU's that have inferior overcurrent protection?

Source: me...electrical engineering graduate.
 
Last edited:
For what it's worth, check your power cables to make sure all the pins are plugged all the way in, too.
On my Corsair PSU, the 8-pin cables are split into 6+2. The little 2-pin attachments are notorious for not going in all the way. I find it helpful to use something like a screwdriver to press those and make sure they're in and properly seated.
 
As a PC enthusiast, I've learned a long time ago to always have at least one extra usable PC that is relatively current so as to test out components if one has problems with them in another PC. Sometimes it becomes really hard to isolate the conflict or issue when limited to the same PC. Not everyone have the room, funds for two+ machines but then if one can afford the best having the extra machine, power supplies, video cards etc. it does makes everything so much smoother. Even having a Linux machine or one you can test out could be very useful.

Using a USB stick with a bootable Linux edition can also be used to rule an OS issue, something rarely indicated to be used, while much more useful with AMD cards since the drivers are baked in for the most part, still one can update the USB stick once Linux is loaded with NVidia drivers to test out.

In this case either the card has problems or the combination with the motherboard. I would put the card in another machine and test it out, if one does cant do that, friend, work partner and if need be a local computer shop or try Best Buy to test it out. Isolate the problem to the card or to the motherboard/GPU combination. In the bios of your motherboard, try adjusting the PCIe from pcie3 to pcie2, if in compatibility mode use ACPI only. Start hitting some of your bios options dealing with power.
 
each 8 pin connector has to use a different cable?...is that a new thing with Ampere or has it always been this way?
 
each 8 pin connector has to use a different cable?...is that a new thing with Ampere or has it always been this way?
I don't get it either.

Most PSU's now are single rail PSUs so all the cables come from the same place anyway.

Edit: Ops is no different.
 
I don't get it either.

Most PSU's now are single rail PSUs so all the cables come from the same place anyway.

Edit: Ops is no different.
for some reason people are thinking high quality PSUs cant deliver rated power to a cable. I really don't think there is going to be any notable voltage drop by running 1 cable instead of 2. It wouldn't have two 8-pin power connectors if it wasn't rated for *at least* 300w.
 
it makes sense, like if you have 4 outlets in a room, it makes sense not to plug 15A worth of stuff into one outlet. Although, if you did plug 15A worth of stuff into one outlet instead of spreading it across multiple outlets, it would still be fine.

so it's not really necessary to use 2 separate cables, it's just recommended to spread the power draw out
 
so it's not really necessary to use 2 separate cables, it's just recommended to spread the power draw out
yes. often times the two cables come out of the same pcb on the psu side, and are literally wired together, it just allows more wire carrying it to the gpu.
 
yes. often times the two cables come out of the same pcb on the psu side, and are literally wired together, it just allows more wire carrying it to the gpu.

so has this always been the unofficial rule (to use 2 cables) with previous GPU generations or has it just gotten more notice now due to the high power requirements of Ampere?
 
so has this always been the unofficial rule (to use 2 cables) with previous GPU generations or has it just gotten more notice due to the high power requirements of Ampere?
its been recommended for a while now for anything 250W+, the 300 is max, not sustained. the pic that was posted is from 2017.
 
its been recommended for a while now for anything 250W+, the 300 is max, not sustained. the pic that was posted is from 2017.

I've always used the same cable with all of my previous GPU's that required multiple 8-pin/6-pin connections...I guess you learn something new every day
 
so has this always been the unofficial rule (to use 2 cables) with previous GPU generations or has it just gotten more notice due to the high power requirements of Ampere?
using 2 cables would be ideal to spread the load across more wires. But, to be 100% clear, if the single cable couldn't handle the power of both connectors, seasonic or any other brand would NOT be putting 2 connectors on one cable.
 
I asked this on the Corsair forum a few years ago and their tech said a single cable should be fine, but using 2 isn't a bad idea if you have the ability to. With my 3090, I'm actually using 3 unique cables. I figure I might as well - I have the cables and the slots.
 
well I swapped out motherboards and now everything is working fine.......weird.
Glad it was fixed. What board were you using and do you remember the BIOS version? May be helpful to others in case they experience the same.
 
Back
Top