diff --git a/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/hglm/ComputationStateHGLM.java b/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/hglm/ComputationStateHGLM.java
index 96b522bae393..e86727130cb1 100644
--- a/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/hglm/ComputationStateHGLM.java
+++ b/h2o-algos/src/main/java/hex/hglm/ComputationStateHGLM.java
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ void initComputationStateHGLM(HGLMTask.ComputationEngineTask engineTask) {
         throw new IllegalArgumentException("initial_t_matrix must be symmetric but is not!");
       // make sure matrix is semi positive definite
       Matrix tMat = new Matrix(_T);
-      if (!tMat.chol().isSPD())
+      if ((_parms._max_iterations > 0) && !tMat.chol().isSPD()) // only check this when we actually build the model
         throw new IllegalArgumentException("initial_t_matrix must be positive semi definite but is not!");
     } else {
       if (_parms._tau_u_var_init > 0.0) {