wl1271_notice("power down");
 
+       /*
+        * Interrupts must be disabled before setting the state to OFF.
+        * Otherwise, the interrupt handler might be called and exit without
+        * reading the interrupt status.
+        */
+       wl1271_disable_interrupts(wl);
        mutex_lock(&wl->mutex);
        if (wl->state != WL1271_STATE_PLT) {
                mutex_unlock(&wl->mutex);
+
+               /*
+                * This will not necessarily enable interrupts as interrupts
+                * may have been disabled when op_stop was called. It will,
+                * however, balance the above call to disable_interrupts().
+                */
+               wl1271_enable_interrupts(wl);
+
                wl1271_error("cannot power down because not in PLT "
                             "state: %d", wl->state);
                ret = -EBUSY;
 
        mutex_unlock(&wl->mutex);
 
-       wl1271_disable_interrupts(wl);
        wl1271_flush_deferred_work(wl);
        cancel_work_sync(&wl->netstack_work);
        cancel_work_sync(&wl->recovery_work);
 
        wl1271_debug(DEBUG_MAC80211, "mac80211 stop");
 
+       /*
+        * Interrupts must be disabled before setting the state to OFF.
+        * Otherwise, the interrupt handler might be called and exit without
+        * reading the interrupt status.
+        */
+       wl1271_disable_interrupts(wl);
        mutex_lock(&wl->mutex);
        if (wl->state == WL1271_STATE_OFF) {
                mutex_unlock(&wl->mutex);
+
+               /*
+                * This will not necessarily enable interrupts as interrupts
+                * may have been disabled when op_stop was called. It will,
+                * however, balance the above call to disable_interrupts().
+                */
+               wl1271_enable_interrupts(wl);
                return;
        }
+
        /*
         * this must be before the cancel_work calls below, so that the work
         * functions don't perform further work.
        list_del(&wl->list);
        mutex_unlock(&wl_list_mutex);
 
-       wl1271_disable_interrupts(wl);
        wl1271_flush_deferred_work(wl);
        cancel_delayed_work_sync(&wl->scan_complete_work);
        cancel_work_sync(&wl->netstack_work);