static int detect_memory_e820(void)
 {
+       int count = 0;
        u32 next = 0;
        u32 size, id;
        u8 err;
                      "=m" (*desc)
                    : "D" (desc), "a" (0xe820));
 
-               if (err || id != SMAP)
+               /* Some BIOSes stop returning SMAP in the middle of
+                  the search loop.  We don't know exactly how the BIOS
+                  screwed up the map at that point, we might have a
+                  partial map, the full map, or complete garbage, so
+                  just return failure. */
+               if (id != SMAP) {
+                       count = 0;
                        break;
+               }
 
-               boot_params.e820_entries++;
+               if (err)
+                       break;
+
+               count++;
                desc++;
-       } while (next && boot_params.e820_entries < E820MAX);
+       } while (next && count < E820MAX);
 
-       return boot_params.e820_entries;
+       return boot_params.e820_entries = count;
 }
 
 static int detect_memory_e801(void)
 
 int detect_memory(void)
 {
+       int err = -1;
+
        if (detect_memory_e820() > 0)
-               return 0;
+               err = 0;
 
        if (!detect_memory_e801())
-               return 0;
+               err = 0;
+
+       if (!detect_memory_88())
+               err = 0;
 
-       return detect_memory_88();
+       return err;
 }