diff --git a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
index cef79ca5bbd5..ec9f5da6f163 100644
--- a/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
+++ b/kernel/time/posix-cpu-timers.c
@@ -1189,9 +1189,8 @@ void set_process_cpu_timer(struct task_struct *tsk, unsigned int clock_idx,
 	u64 now;
 
 	WARN_ON_ONCE(clock_idx == CPUCLOCK_SCHED);
-	cpu_timer_sample_group(clock_idx, tsk, &now);
 
-	if (oldval) {
+	if (oldval && cpu_timer_sample_group(clock_idx, tsk, &now) != -EINVAL) {
 		/*
 		 * We are setting itimer. The *oldval is absolute and we update
 		 * it to be relative, *newval argument is relative and we update