diff --git a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/mm/vm.c b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/mm/vm.c
index 4e221500a..dc928e181 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/mm/vm.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/nvgpu/common/mm/vm.c
@@ -755,6 +755,11 @@ int nvgpu_vm_get_buffers(struct vm_gk20a *vm,
 
 	nvgpu_mutex_acquire(&vm->update_gmmu_lock);
 
+	if (vm->num_user_mapped_buffers == 0) {
+		nvgpu_mutex_release(&vm->update_gmmu_lock);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
 	buffer_list = nvgpu_big_zalloc(vm->mm->g, sizeof(*buffer_list) *
 				       vm->num_user_mapped_buffers);
 	if (buffer_list == NULL) {