diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt
index 7fedc00c3d30..555c8cf3650a 100644
--- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cpu-freq/user-guide.txt
@@ -153,10 +153,13 @@ scaling_governor,		and by "echoing" the name of another
 				that some governors won't load - they only
 				work on some specific architectures or
 				processors.
-scaling_min_freq and 
+scaling_min_freq and
 scaling_max_freq		show the current "policy limits" (in
 				kHz). By echoing new values into these
 				files, you can change these limits.
+				NOTE: when setting a policy you need to
+				first set scaling_max_freq, then
+				scaling_min_freq.
 
 
 If you have selected the "userspace" governor which allows you to
diff --git a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
index bc1088d9b379..ad996c772c8b 100644
--- a/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
+++ b/drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
@@ -1343,6 +1343,11 @@ static int __cpufreq_set_policy(struct cpufreq_policy *data, struct cpufreq_poli
 
 	memcpy(&policy->cpuinfo, &data->cpuinfo, sizeof(struct cpufreq_cpuinfo));
 
+	if (policy->min > data->min && policy->min > policy->max) {
+		ret = -EINVAL;
+		goto error_out;
+	}
+
 	/* verify the cpu speed can be set within this limit */
 	ret = cpufreq_driver->verify(policy);
 	if (ret)