_load_per_task = rq->load.weight / rq->nr_running; The runqueue lock is not held here, and there is nothing that prevents the rq->nr_running from going to zero after it passes the if condition. The branch profiler simply made the race window bigger. This patch saves off the rq->nr_running to a local variable and uses that for both the condition and the division. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt Peter Zijlstra Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar b_