diff --git a/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c b/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
index 50b6ba593a10..67770375c5ee 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
+++ b/arch/arm64/kvm/pmu-emul.c
@@ -511,7 +511,8 @@ void kvm_pmu_handle_pmcr(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, u64 val)
 	if (!kvm_vcpu_has_pmu(vcpu))
 		return;
 
-	__vcpu_sys_reg(vcpu, PMCR_EL0) = val;
+	/* The reset bits don't indicate any state, and shouldn't be saved. */
+	__vcpu_sys_reg(vcpu, PMCR_EL0) = val & ~(ARMV8_PMU_PMCR_C | ARMV8_PMU_PMCR_P);
 
 	if (val & ARMV8_PMU_PMCR_E) {
 		kvm_pmu_enable_counter_mask(vcpu,