diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
index f99c135718dd53d08ec908d3f9ac9b952cae1348..92a2f03a06c8babf0709e9fc32deba41b757c370 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_ethtool.c
@@ -1217,6 +1217,7 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 {
 	struct i40e_ring *tx_rings = NULL, *rx_rings = NULL;
 	struct i40e_netdev_priv *np = netdev_priv(netdev);
+	struct i40e_hw *hw = &np->vsi->back->hw;
 	struct i40e_vsi *vsi = np->vsi;
 	struct i40e_pf *pf = vsi->back;
 	u32 new_rx_count, new_tx_count;
@@ -1309,10 +1310,6 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 		}
 
 		for (i = 0; i < vsi->num_queue_pairs; i++) {
-			/* this is to allow wr32 to have something to write to
-			 * during early allocation of Rx buffers
-			 */
-			u32 __iomem faketail = 0;
 			struct i40e_ring *ring;
 			u16 unused;
 
@@ -1324,7 +1321,10 @@ static int i40e_set_ringparam(struct net_device *netdev,
 			 */
 			rx_rings[i].desc = NULL;
 			rx_rings[i].rx_bi = NULL;
-			rx_rings[i].tail = (u8 __iomem *)&faketail;
+			/* this is to allow wr32 to have something to write to
+			 * during early allocation of Rx buffers
+			 */
+			rx_rings[i].tail = hw->hw_addr + I40E_PRTGEN_STATUS;
 			err = i40e_setup_rx_descriptors(&rx_rings[i]);
 			if (err)
 				goto rx_unwind;