diff --git a/drivers/hwmon/fschmd.c b/drivers/hwmon/fschmd.c
index 37ea6a45d25..3e51d54b60f 100644
--- a/drivers/hwmon/fschmd.c
+++ b/drivers/hwmon/fschmd.c
@@ -767,6 +767,7 @@ leave:
 static int watchdog_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
 {
 	struct fschmd_data *pos, *data = NULL;
+	int watchdog_is_open;
 
 	/* We get called from drivers/char/misc.c with misc_mtx hold, and we
 	   call misc_register() from fschmd_probe() with watchdog_data_mutex
@@ -781,10 +782,12 @@ static int watchdog_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
 		}
 	}
 	/* Note we can never not have found data, so we don't check for this */
-	kref_get(&data->kref);
+	watchdog_is_open = test_and_set_bit(0, &data->watchdog_is_open);
+	if (!watchdog_is_open)
+		kref_get(&data->kref);
 	mutex_unlock(&watchdog_data_mutex);
 
-	if (test_and_set_bit(0, &data->watchdog_is_open))
+	if (watchdog_is_open)
 		return -EBUSY;
 
 	/* Start the watchdog */