diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/hpet.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/hpet.h
index 1d5c08a1bdfdb5b61c72cb286dfb0ac382c17e76..004e6e25e91301dd8a6d188d84a9c9ee795a7100 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/hpet.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/hpet.h
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ extern unsigned long force_hpet_address;
 extern u8 hpet_blockid;
 extern int hpet_force_user;
 extern u8 hpet_msi_disable;
+extern u8 hpet_readback_cmp;
 extern int is_hpet_enabled(void);
 extern int hpet_enable(void);
 extern void hpet_disable(void);
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c b/arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c
index 23b4ecdffa9bcc76dc0659ab6e6ed1c7882ad677..a198b7c87a123d2f80c6313261e9b80e8346cad1 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 unsigned long				hpet_address;
 u8					hpet_blockid; /* OS timer block num */
 u8					hpet_msi_disable;
+u8					hpet_readback_cmp;
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_PCI_MSI
 static unsigned long			hpet_num_timers;
@@ -395,19 +396,23 @@ static int hpet_next_event(unsigned long delta,
 	 * at that point and we would wait for the next hpet interrupt
 	 * forever. We found out that reading the CMP register back
 	 * forces the transfer so we can rely on the comparison with
-	 * the counter register below. If the read back from the
-	 * compare register does not match the value we programmed
-	 * then we might have a real hardware problem. We can not do
-	 * much about it here, but at least alert the user/admin with
-	 * a prominent warning.
-	 * An erratum on some chipsets (ICH9,..), results in comparator read
-	 * immediately following a write returning old value. Workaround
-	 * for this is to read this value second time, when first
-	 * read returns old value.
+	 * the counter register below.
+	 *
+	 * That works fine on those ATI chipsets, but on newer Intel
+	 * chipsets (ICH9...) this triggers due to an erratum: Reading
+	 * the comparator immediately following a write is returning
+	 * the old value.
+	 *
+	 * We restrict the read back to the affected ATI chipsets (set
+	 * by quirks) and also run it with hpet=verbose for debugging
+	 * purposes.
 	 */
-	if (unlikely((u32)hpet_readl(HPET_Tn_CMP(timer)) != cnt)) {
-		WARN_ONCE(hpet_readl(HPET_Tn_CMP(timer)) != cnt,
-		  KERN_WARNING "hpet: compare register read back failed.\n");
+	if (hpet_readback_cmp || hpet_verbose) {
+		u32 cmp = hpet_readl(HPET_Tn_CMP(timer));
+
+		if (cmp != cnt)
+			printk_once(KERN_WARNING
+			    "hpet: compare register read back failed.\n");
 	}
 
 	return (s32)(hpet_readl(HPET_COUNTER) - cnt) >= 0 ? -ETIME : 0;
diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/quirks.c b/arch/x86/kernel/quirks.c
index 12e9feaa2f7aba947b65ca2fe3611be81321a8f1..cd2c336c8d09f367640c44f57c063f2dcb7f16ee 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kernel/quirks.c
+++ b/arch/x86/kernel/quirks.c
@@ -495,10 +495,15 @@ void force_hpet_resume(void)
 /*
  * HPET MSI on some boards (ATI SB700/SB800) has side effect on
  * floppy DMA. Disable HPET MSI on such platforms.
+ *
+ * Also force the read back of the CMP register in hpet_next_event()
+ * to work around the problem that the CMP register write seems to be
+ * delayed. See hpet_next_event() for details.
  */
 static void force_disable_hpet_msi(struct pci_dev *unused)
 {
 	hpet_msi_disable = 1;
+	hpet_readback_cmp = 1;
 }
 
 DECLARE_PCI_FIXUP_HEADER(PCI_VENDOR_ID_ATI, PCI_DEVICE_ID_ATI_SBX00_SMBUS,