diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800pci.c b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800pci.c
index eeecedb63cd0..e870366ad871 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800pci.c
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/rt2x00/rt2800pci.c
@@ -813,29 +813,24 @@ static void rt2800pci_txdone(struct rt2x00_dev *rt2x00dev)
 	struct txdone_entry_desc txdesc;
 	u32 word;
 	u32 reg;
-	u32 old_reg;
 	int wcid, ack, pid, tx_wcid, tx_ack, tx_pid;
 	u16 mcs, real_mcs;
+	int i;
 
 	/*
-	 * During each loop we will compare the freshly read
-	 * TX_STA_FIFO register value with the value read from
-	 * the previous loop. If the 2 values are equal then
-	 * we should stop processing because the chance it
-	 * quite big that the device has been unplugged and
-	 * we risk going into an endless loop.
+	 * TX_STA_FIFO is a stack of X entries, hence read TX_STA_FIFO
+	 * at most X times and also stop processing once the TX_STA_FIFO_VALID
+	 * flag is not set anymore.
+	 *
+	 * The legacy drivers use X=TX_RING_SIZE but state in a comment
+	 * that the TX_STA_FIFO stack has a size of 16. We stick to our
+	 * tx ring size for now.
 	 */
-	old_reg = 0;
-
-	while (1) {
+	for (i = 0; i < TX_ENTRIES; i++) {
 		rt2800_register_read(rt2x00dev, TX_STA_FIFO, &reg);
 		if (!rt2x00_get_field32(reg, TX_STA_FIFO_VALID))
 			break;
 
-		if (old_reg == reg)
-			break;
-		old_reg = reg;
-
 		wcid    = rt2x00_get_field32(reg, TX_STA_FIFO_WCID);
 		ack     = rt2x00_get_field32(reg, TX_STA_FIFO_TX_ACK_REQUIRED);
 		pid     = rt2x00_get_field32(reg, TX_STA_FIFO_PID_TYPE);