diff --git a/drivers/hv/channel_mgmt.c b/drivers/hv/channel_mgmt.c
index 417a95e5094d..af7832e13167 100644
--- a/drivers/hv/channel_mgmt.c
+++ b/drivers/hv/channel_mgmt.c
@@ -750,7 +750,7 @@ static void vmbus_wait_for_unload(void)
 	void *page_addr;
 	struct hv_message *msg;
 	struct vmbus_channel_message_header *hdr;
-	u32 message_type;
+	u32 message_type, i;
 
 	/*
 	 * CHANNELMSG_UNLOAD_RESPONSE is always delivered to the CPU which was
@@ -760,8 +760,11 @@ static void vmbus_wait_for_unload(void)
 	 * functional and vmbus_unload_response() will complete
 	 * vmbus_connection.unload_event. If not, the last thing we can do is
 	 * read message pages for all CPUs directly.
+	 *
+	 * Wait no more than 10 seconds so that the panic path can't get
+	 * hung forever in case the response message isn't seen.
 	 */
-	while (1) {
+	for (i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
 		if (completion_done(&vmbus_connection.unload_event))
 			break;