diff --git a/arch/i386/kernel/tsc.c b/arch/i386/kernel/tsc.c
index 12fef14995a5..46f752a8bbf3 100644
--- a/arch/i386/kernel/tsc.c
+++ b/arch/i386/kernel/tsc.c
@@ -112,13 +112,10 @@ unsigned long long sched_clock(void)
 		return (*custom_sched_clock)();
 
 	/*
-	 * in the NUMA case we dont use the TSC as they are not
-	 * synchronized across all CPUs.
+	 * Fall back to jiffies if there's no TSC available:
 	 */
-#ifndef CONFIG_NUMA
-	if (!cpu_khz || check_tsc_unstable())
-#endif
-		/* no locking but a rare wrong value is not a big deal */
+	if (unlikely(tsc_disable))
+		/* No locking but a rare wrong value is not a big deal: */
 		return (jiffies_64 - INITIAL_JIFFIES) * (1000000000 / HZ);
 
 	/* read the Time Stamp Counter: */
@@ -198,13 +195,13 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(recalibrate_cpu_khz);
 void __init tsc_init(void)
 {
 	if (!cpu_has_tsc || tsc_disable)
-		return;
+		goto out_no_tsc;
 
 	cpu_khz = calculate_cpu_khz();
 	tsc_khz = cpu_khz;
 
 	if (!cpu_khz)
-		return;
+		goto out_no_tsc;
 
 	printk("Detected %lu.%03lu MHz processor.\n",
 				(unsigned long)cpu_khz / 1000,
@@ -212,6 +209,15 @@ void __init tsc_init(void)
 
 	set_cyc2ns_scale(cpu_khz);
 	use_tsc_delay();
+	return;
+
+out_no_tsc:
+	/*
+	 * Set the tsc_disable flag if there's no TSC support, this
+	 * makes it a fast flag for the kernel to see whether it
+	 * should be using the TSC.
+	 */
+	tsc_disable = 1;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_CPU_FREQ
diff --git a/include/asm-i386/bugs.h b/include/asm-i386/bugs.h
index 38f1aebbbdb5..c90c7c499302 100644
--- a/include/asm-i386/bugs.h
+++ b/include/asm-i386/bugs.h
@@ -160,7 +160,7 @@ static void __init check_config(void)
  * If we configured ourselves for a TSC, we'd better have one!
  */
 #ifdef CONFIG_X86_TSC
-	if (!cpu_has_tsc)
+	if (!cpu_has_tsc && !tsc_disable)
 		panic("Kernel compiled for Pentium+, requires TSC feature!");
 #endif