/* scale is effectively 1 << i now, and >> i divides by scale */
 
-               old_load = this_rq->cpu_load[i] - tickless_load;
+               old_load = this_rq->cpu_load[i];
                old_load = decay_load_missed(old_load, pending_updates - 1, i);
-               old_load += tickless_load;
+               if (tickless_load) {
+                       old_load -= decay_load_missed(tickless_load, pending_updates - 1, i);
+                       /*
+                        * old_load can never be a negative value because a
+                        * decayed tickless_load cannot be greater than the
+                        * original tickless_load.
+                        */
+                       old_load += tickless_load;
+               }
                new_load = this_load;
                /*
                 * Round up the averaging division if load is increasing. This