diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/si.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/si.c
index 31e2c1083b08..e2eac766666e 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/si.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/radeon/si.c
@@ -3616,6 +3616,10 @@ static int si_cp_start(struct radeon_device *rdev)
 	for (i = RADEON_RING_TYPE_GFX_INDEX; i <= CAYMAN_RING_TYPE_CP2_INDEX; ++i) {
 		ring = &rdev->ring[i];
 		r = radeon_ring_lock(rdev, ring, 2);
+		if (r) {
+			DRM_ERROR("radeon: cp failed to lock ring (%d).\n", r);
+			return r;
+		}
 
 		/* clear the compute context state */
 		radeon_ring_write(ring, PACKET3_COMPUTE(PACKET3_CLEAR_STATE, 0));