diff --git a/drivers/devfreq/governor_bw_hwmon.c b/drivers/devfreq/governor_bw_hwmon.c
index fe0071b3db4f..2a57dc847279 100644
--- a/drivers/devfreq/governor_bw_hwmon.c
+++ b/drivers/devfreq/governor_bw_hwmon.c
@@ -599,7 +599,8 @@ static int gov_start(struct devfreq *df)
 	node->orig_data = df->data;
 	df->data = node;
 
-	if (start_monitor(df, true))
+	ret = start_monitor(df, true);
+	if (ret < 0)
 		goto err_start;
 
 	ret = sysfs_create_group(&df->dev.kobj, node->attr_grp);