The surface permanent magnet synchronous motor (SPMSM) drive system has been widely used in the industry due to its high power density, high efficiency and easy to control. nature The author proposes a speed-loop frequency-adaptive periodic controller and a current-loop optimal harmonic periodic controller for a fault-tolerant SPMSM drive system, including normal operating conditions and faulty operating conditions. The faulty conditions consist of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) open-circuit and an IGBT short-circuit. A digital signal processor, TMS-320F-2808, manufactured by Texas Instruments, is used as a control centre to execute the proposed fault-detection, fault-diagnosis, frequency-adaptive and optimal harmonic periodic control algorithms. Experimental results show the proposed advanced periodic controllers can provide better performance than the proportional integral controller and the classic periodic controller, including transient responses, load disturbance responses, and tracking responses under normal and faulty conditions.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.