diff --git a/drivers/usb/serial/ipaq.c b/drivers/usb/serial/ipaq.c
index f51a5d52c0edab01b9c9fbd91b8c1d7389d00f78..ec1b8f2c11837fecd39468c1e053880d72da9f94 100644
--- a/drivers/usb/serial/ipaq.c
+++ b/drivers/usb/serial/ipaq.c
@@ -531,7 +531,8 @@ static int ipaq_open(struct tty_struct *tty,
 	 * through. Since this has a reasonably high failure rate, we retry
 	 * several times.
 	 */
-	while (retries--) {
+	while (retries) {
+		retries--;
 		result = usb_control_msg(serial->dev,
 				usb_sndctrlpipe(serial->dev, 0), 0x22, 0x21,
 				0x1, 0, NULL, 0, 100);