diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
index 8a184d271fea4b2cd1c60560bdcde884ab05df43..5f04b8b6f0d9858cbd8af6d63f2c87387c1a5709 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2xmltest.c
@@ -112,9 +112,12 @@ testGetStatuXMLPrefixVcpus(virBufferPtr buf,
     virBufferAddLit(buf, "<vcpus>\n");
     virBufferAdjustIndent(buf, 2);
 
-    while ((vcpuid = virBitmapNextSetBit(data->activeVcpus, vcpuid)) >= 0)
-        virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<vcpu id='%zd' pid='%zd'/>\n",
-                          vcpuid, vcpuid + 3803519);
+    /* Make sure we can format the fake vcpu list. The test will fail regardles. */
+    if (data->activeVcpus) {
+        while ((vcpuid = virBitmapNextSetBit(data->activeVcpus, vcpuid)) >= 0)
+            virBufferAsprintf(buf, "<vcpu id='%zd' pid='%zd'/>\n",
+                              vcpuid, vcpuid + 3803519);
+    }
 
     virBufferAdjustIndent(buf, -2);
     virBufferAddLit(buf, "</vcpus>\n");