diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/io/io.c b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/io/io.c
index 0636e6454..371e0e0aa 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/io/io.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/io/io.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2018, NVIDIA CORPORATION.  All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2018-2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.  All rights reserved.
  *
  * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
  * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 
 #include <nvgpu/io.h>
 #include <nvgpu/types.h>
+#include <nvgpu/bug.h>
 #include <nvgpu/gk20a.h>
 
 void nvgpu_writel_check(struct gk20a *g, u32 r, u32 v)
@@ -31,7 +32,8 @@ void nvgpu_writel_check(struct gk20a *g, u32 r, u32 v)
 	nvgpu_writel(g, r, v);
 	read_val = nvgpu_readl(g, r);
 	if (v != read_val) {
-		nvgpu_log(g, gpu_dbg_reg, "r=0x%x rd=0x%x wr=0x%x (mismatch)",
+		nvgpu_err(g, "r=0x%x rd=0x%x wr=0x%x (mismatch)",
 					r, read_val, v);
+		BUG_ON(1);
 	}
 }
diff --git a/userspace/units/io/common_io.c b/userspace/units/io/common_io.c
index df4eaa986..039d0e522 100644
--- a/userspace/units/io/common_io.c
+++ b/userspace/units/io/common_io.c
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 #include <include/nvgpu/posix/io.h>
 #include <nvgpu/types.h>
 #include <nvgpu/io.h>
+#include <nvgpu/bug.h>
 
 #include "common_io.h"
 
@@ -56,7 +57,7 @@ int test_writel_check(struct unit_module *m, struct gk20a *g, void *args)
 
 	/* Value 0 will force to fail readback call as read API returns
 	 * NVGPU_READ_VAL. */
-	nvgpu_writel_check(g, USER_MODE_BASE, 0);
+	EXPECT_BUG(nvgpu_writel_check(g, USER_MODE_BASE, 0));
 
 	/* Value NVGPU_READ_VAL will pass the readback call as read API returns
 	 * NVGPU_READ_VAL. */