diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/process.c b/arch/mips/kernel/process.c
index efa1df52c6166ac7f083c911753d2d558d23df43..3da0161bdf84dddb7d260650590b87ecf96c896c 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/process.c
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/process.c
@@ -50,9 +50,7 @@
 #ifdef CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU
 void arch_cpu_idle_dead(void)
 {
-	/* What the heck is this check doing ? */
-	if (!cpumask_test_cpu(smp_processor_id(), &cpu_callin_map))
-		play_dead();
+	play_dead();
 }
 #endif
 
diff --git a/arch/mips/kernel/smp.c b/arch/mips/kernel/smp.c
index 7ebb1918e2ac8abb5a2f8bff3b7d0f51cd126ee8..03daf900812453450fe835417cfacd175c989505 100644
--- a/arch/mips/kernel/smp.c
+++ b/arch/mips/kernel/smp.c
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(cpu_sibling_map);
 cpumask_t cpu_core_map[NR_CPUS] __read_mostly;
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(cpu_core_map);
 
+static DECLARE_COMPLETION(cpu_running);
+
 /*
  * A logcal cpu mask containing only one VPE per core to
  * reduce the number of IPIs on large MT systems.
@@ -369,7 +371,7 @@ asmlinkage void start_secondary(void)
 	cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, &cpu_coherent_mask);
 	notify_cpu_starting(cpu);
 
-	cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, &cpu_callin_map);
+	complete(&cpu_running);
 	synchronise_count_slave(cpu);
 
 	set_cpu_online(cpu, true);
@@ -430,7 +432,6 @@ void smp_prepare_boot_cpu(void)
 {
 	set_cpu_possible(0, true);
 	set_cpu_online(0, true);
-	cpumask_set_cpu(0, &cpu_callin_map);
 }
 
 int __cpu_up(unsigned int cpu, struct task_struct *tidle)
@@ -438,11 +439,13 @@ int __cpu_up(unsigned int cpu, struct task_struct *tidle)
 	mp_ops->boot_secondary(cpu, tidle);
 
 	/*
-	 * Trust is futile.  We should really have timeouts ...
+	 * We must check for timeout here, as the CPU will not be marked
+	 * online until the counters are synchronised.
 	 */
-	while (!cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, &cpu_callin_map)) {
-		udelay(100);
-		schedule();
+	if (!wait_for_completion_timeout(&cpu_running,
+					 msecs_to_jiffies(1000))) {
+		pr_crit("CPU%u: failed to start\n", cpu);
+		return -EIO;
 	}
 
 	synchronise_count_master(cpu);