diff --git a/drivers/s390/cio/cio.c b/drivers/s390/cio/cio.c
index 73135c5e9dfb..2aebb9823044 100644
--- a/drivers/s390/cio/cio.c
+++ b/drivers/s390/cio/cio.c
@@ -472,6 +472,7 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(cio_enable_subchannel);
 int cio_disable_subchannel(struct subchannel *sch)
 {
 	char dbf_txt[15];
+	int retry;
 	int ret;
 
 	CIO_TRACE_EVENT (2, "dissch");
@@ -482,16 +483,17 @@ int cio_disable_subchannel(struct subchannel *sch)
 	if (cio_update_schib(sch))
 		return -ENODEV;
 
-	if (scsw_actl(&sch->schib.scsw) != 0)
-		/*
-		 * the disable function must not be called while there are
-		 *  requests pending for completion !
-		 */
-		return -EBUSY;
-
 	sch->config.ena = 0;
-	ret = cio_commit_config(sch);
 
+	for (retry = 0; retry < 3; retry++) {
+		ret = cio_commit_config(sch);
+		if (ret == -EBUSY) {
+			struct irb irb;
+			if (tsch(sch->schid, &irb) != 0)
+				break;
+		} else
+			break;
+	}
 	sprintf (dbf_txt, "ret:%d", ret);
 	CIO_TRACE_EVENT (2, dbf_txt);
 	return ret;
diff --git a/drivers/s390/cio/device_fsm.c b/drivers/s390/cio/device_fsm.c
index 95f2f352cb9d..301d27bf944e 100644
--- a/drivers/s390/cio/device_fsm.c
+++ b/drivers/s390/cio/device_fsm.c
@@ -1052,7 +1052,7 @@ ccw_device_offline_irq(struct ccw_device *cdev, enum dev_event dev_event)
 	sch = to_subchannel(cdev->dev.parent);
 	/*
 	 * An interrupt in state offline means a previous disable was not
-	 * successful. Try again.
+	 * successful - should not happen, but we try to disable again.
 	 */
 	cio_disable_subchannel(sch);
 }