diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/pmu/pmu.c b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/pmu/pmu.c
index 593d52b36..cc2e8efa1 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/pmu/pmu.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/pmu/pmu.c
@@ -172,6 +172,8 @@ void nvgpu_kill_task_pg_init(struct gk20a *g)
 			nvgpu_udelay(2);
 		} while (nvgpu_timeout_expired_msg(&timeout,
 			"timeout - waiting PMU state machine thread stop") == 0);
+	} else {
+		nvgpu_thread_join(&pmu->pg_init.state_task);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/thread.h b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/thread.h
index b113f9720..eac06ef17 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/thread.h
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/include/nvgpu/thread.h
@@ -80,4 +80,13 @@ bool nvgpu_thread_should_stop(struct nvgpu_thread *thread);
  */
 bool nvgpu_thread_is_running(struct nvgpu_thread *thread);
 
+/**
+ * nvgpu_thread_join - join a thread to reclaim resources
+ * after it has exited
+ *
+ * @thread - thread to join
+ *
+ */
+void nvgpu_thread_join(struct nvgpu_thread *thread);
+
 #endif /* NVGPU_THREAD_H */
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/linux/thread.c b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/linux/thread.c
index 92c556f21..3da61eed4 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/linux/thread.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/linux/thread.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2017, NVIDIA CORPORATION.  All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2017-2018, NVIDIA CORPORATION.  All rights reserved.
  *
  * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  * under the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License,
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include <linux/kthread.h>
 
 #include <nvgpu/thread.h>
+#include <nvgpu/timers.h>
 
 int nvgpu_thread_proxy(void *threaddata)
 {
@@ -61,3 +62,10 @@ bool nvgpu_thread_is_running(struct nvgpu_thread *thread)
 {
 	return ACCESS_ONCE(thread->running);
 };
+
+void nvgpu_thread_join(struct nvgpu_thread *thread)
+{
+	while (ACCESS_ONCE(thread->running)) {
+		nvgpu_msleep(10);
+	}
+};
diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/posix/thread.c b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/posix/thread.c
index e72f95800..d2e6d98d2 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/posix/thread.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/os/posix/thread.c
@@ -95,3 +95,8 @@ bool nvgpu_thread_is_running(struct nvgpu_thread *thread)
 {
 	return thread->running;
 }
+
+void nvgpu_thread_join(struct nvgpu_thread *thread)
+{
+	(void) pthread_join(thread->thread, NULL);
+}