The m = 2 mode stability is investigated in the ISAR T1-B toroidal high-beta stellarator (major diameter 2.7 m, capacitor bank energy 0.5 or 1.5 MJ) for a great variety of plasma parameters using deuterium filling gas (0.5 < ωL · τii < 200; 0.1 < rL/a < 0.35; ωL = ion Larmor frequency; rL = ion Larmor radius; a = plasma radius; τii = ion self-collision time). The ion mass dependence was checked by a small number of discharges with hydrogen. For rL/a < ηcrit, ηcrit = 0.14, fast-growing m = 2 modes were found, the limit ηcrit being essentially independent of the collision frequency within the accessible range (2 ≲ ωL · τii ≲ 20). For rL/a > 0.14 no fast-growing m = 2 modes were observed, the plasma lifetime being limited by a m = 1, k ≈ 0 mode. The normalized growth rate, = γ/(Vi/a) = 0.15 ± 0.05, (Vi = ion thermal speed) was about half the sharp boundary value and slightly higher than that calculated for a diffuse pressure profile. The experimentally determined minimum value of rL/a, for which the m = 2 mode is stabilized, is by about a factor of three smaller than Freidberg's estimation using a sharp-boundary Vlasov model. Advanced calculations in a sharp boundary model by Lewis and Turner deviate in the critical limit only by a factor of about 1.5 and recent results using a diffuse pressure profile by Herrnegger and Schneider and by Freidberg and Hewett agree quite well with the experimental data.