diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
index 7bc0490354847a949d2f2105cca86e67f8e0b1b4..7069bd3e90b308871d4f309b99335cba09b9fbbc 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-record.c
@@ -331,6 +331,9 @@ static void create_counter(struct perf_evsel *evsel, int cpu)
 			else if (err ==  ENODEV && cpu_list) {
 				die("No such device - did you specify"
 					" an out-of-range profile CPU?\n");
+			} else if (err == ENOENT) {
+				die("%s event is not supported. ",
+				     event_name(evsel));
 			} else if (err == EINVAL && sample_id_all_avail) {
 				/*
 				 * Old kernel, no attr->sample_id_type_all field
diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-top.c b/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
index 1e67ab9c7ebc46c5df87e6219ad023b5509207f2..6ce4042421bd92b1574f50409cf60f506675ddfd 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-top.c
@@ -1247,6 +1247,8 @@ static void start_counter(int i, struct perf_evsel *evsel)
 				die("Permission error - are you root?\n"
 					"\t Consider tweaking"
 					" /proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid.\n");
+			if (err == ENOENT)
+				die("%s event is not supported. ", event_name(evsel));
 			/*
 			 * If it's cycles then fall back to hrtimer
 			 * based cpu-clock-tick sw counter, which