diff --git a/llama.cpp b/llama.cpp
index eb1f02e42..fe24f5096 100644
--- a/llama.cpp
+++ b/llama.cpp
@@ -2212,22 +2212,19 @@ static bool llama_kv_cache_find_slot(
         // For recurrent state architectures (like Mamba),
         // each KV cache cell can store the state for a whole sequence.
 
-        // starting point to find the minimum seq_id used in the batch
-        cache.head = cache.size - 1;
-        // likewise, to find the max seq_id in the batch
-        cache.used = 0;
+        llama_seq_id min = cache.size - 1;
+        llama_seq_id max = 0;
+
         for (uint32_t i = 0; i < n_tokens; ++i) {
             for (int32_t j = 0; j < batch.n_seq_id[i]; ++j) {
                 llama_seq_id seq_id = batch.seq_id[i][j];
                 // make sure it's a valid seq_id
-                if ((uint32_t)seq_id < cache.size) {
-                    // the number of "used" cells is simply the biggest seq_id
-                    if (cache.used < (uint32_t)seq_id) {
-                        cache.used = seq_id;
+                if ((uint32_t) seq_id < cache.size) {
+                    if (seq_id > max) {
+                        max = seq_id;
                     }
-                    // the "head" is the smallest seq_id
-                    if (cache.head > (uint32_t)seq_id) {
-                        cache.head = seq_id;
+                    if (seq_id < min) {
+                        min = seq_id;
                     }
                     // Assuming the tokens are in-order
                     if (batch.pos[i] != cache.cells[seq_id].pos + 1) {
@@ -2236,6 +2233,9 @@ static bool llama_kv_cache_find_slot(
                         LLAMA_LOG_WARN("%s: non-consecutive token position %d after %d for sequence %d\n",
                             __func__, batch.pos[i], cache.cells[seq_id].pos, seq_id);
                     }
+                    if (cache.cells[seq_id].pos < 0 && 0 <= batch.pos[i]) {
+                        cache.used += 1;
+                    }
                     cache.cells[seq_id].pos = batch.pos[i];
                     // NOTE: seq_ids are not inserted here; they are handled when the input tensors are set
                 } else {
@@ -2247,9 +2247,12 @@ static bool llama_kv_cache_find_slot(
             }
         }
 
-        cache.n = cache.used - cache.head + 1;
-        // sanity check (max >= min)
-        return cache.used >= cache.head;
+        // allow getting the range of used cells, from head to head + n
+        cache.head = min;
+        cache.n    = max - min + 1;
+
+        // sanity check
+        return max >= min;
     }
     // otherwise, one cell per token.