What is the significance of an FMA Fail

[CSand7]

My Dell XPS 8500 is freezing, usually a few minutes after successful bootup. I usually have to shut down the system and it takes three to five attempts at rebooting before it will start again.

I installed IPDT 64Bit 4.0.0.29.W.MP

The test fails in module FMA

The message reads:

IPDT64 Failed

--IPDT64 - Revision 4.0.0.29

Is this the cause of my freezes?

Here are the details of my system:

Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz

Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9

8GB RAM

Graphics Information AMD Radeon HD 7570

System BIOS A12

I am trying to figure out if this problem is related the CPU, GPU, power supply, or other cause.

[idata]

Hello islander,

Thank you for contacting the Intel community. Please bear in mind that your best contact support is with your system manufacturer as they are more familiar with your system and how all the components interact with each other, Intel sells products to various OEM's (Original Equipment Manufacturers), who then integrate them, with other system components (power supplies, disk drives, add in cards, software, etc). These system may be customized to the OEM's specifications. However, to have the IPDT to pass the test try the following:Run IPDT as AdminAfter the first Fail, click on "tools"Under "configuration", scroll down to SPBC and check "disable"Start the test again... If your system is freezing, this can be caused by many different things, this can be cause by a corrupted driver or application installed, this can be caused by hardware issue, corrupted Windows® update etc. One way you can try to find out if it is hardware issue or software issue is to access the system in safe mode, if you can access the system in safe mode and you don't get the freezing issue when in safe mode then this is most likely a software issue, a corrupted driver or application that you have installed, at that point you can try updating Windows and all the drivers from your computer manufacturer website. If you get the freezing issue when in safe mode then you might have a hardware problem and if your system is still under warranty you can try to get warranty for this unit from your computer manufacturer, again this is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) system and they can also provide you with better support about this issue. You might get support here:http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/4/product-support/product/xps-8500/manuals http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/4/product-support/product/xps-8500/manualsNOTE: This link is being offered for your convenience and should not be viewed as an endorsement by Intel of the content, products, or services offered there. I hope this can help. Best regards, Ivan.

[CSand7]

Thank you for the standard reply, but it does not answer my question directly.

Your instructions to run the test again and disable SPBC do not match what I see on screen within the test. There is no option called SPBC.

Is an FMA Fail significant? Could it cause the computer freeze?

Intel is the maker of the CPU, and also the test. I want to know if there is a problem with the CPU before I try to get an answer from the maker of the computer. Why? Because the maker of the computer is going to say, "Ask Intel."

So: Is an FMA Fail significant?

Thank you.

[idata]

I'm sorry but as I mentioned before a freezing issue can be caused by many different things and I cannot speculate and say that your system freezing issue is cause by the FMA fail especially because this is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) system.

How significant this fail can be on your system depends on your computer manufacturer as they are more familiar with your computer and how the components interact with each other. FMA - Fused Multiply Add Instruction you can also ask for more information and support here:https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/opencl/topic/401161 https://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/opencl/topic/401161 Regards, Ivan.