diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/posix/utils.h b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/posix/utils.h
index f2db92d6d..faf077f05 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/posix/utils.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/posix/utils.h
@@ -183,10 +183,12 @@ static inline u32 be32_to_cpu(u32 x)
 static inline unsigned int nvgpu_posix_hweight8(uint8_t x)
 {
 	unsigned int ret;
-	uint8_t result = x - ((x >> 1) & 0x55U);
+	uint8_t result = ((U8(x) >> U8(1)) & U8(0x55));
 
-	result = (result & 0x33U) + ((result >> 2) & 0x33U);
-	result = (result + (result >> 4)) & 0x0FU;
+	result = nvgpu_safe_sub_u8(x, result);
+
+	result = (result & U8(0x33)) + ((result >> U8(2)) & U8(0x33));
+	result = (result + (result >> U8(4))) & U8(0x0f);
 	ret = (unsigned int)result;
 
 	return ret;
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/safe_ops.h b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/safe_ops.h
index 03370552b..ee27613c5 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/safe_ops.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/safe_ops.h
@@ -64,6 +64,15 @@ static inline s64 nvgpu_safe_add_s64(s64 sl_a, s64 sl_b)
 	}
 }
 
+static inline u8 nvgpu_safe_sub_u8(u8 uc_a, u8 uc_b)
+{
+	if (uc_a < uc_b) {
+		BUG();
+	} else {
+		return uc_a - uc_b;
+	}
+}
+
 static inline u32 nvgpu_safe_sub_u32(u32 ui_a, u32 ui_b)
 {
 	if (ui_a < ui_b) {