diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_exec.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_exec.c
index 41034a5996ff..2453ec41360f 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_exec.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_exec.c
@@ -322,6 +322,19 @@ int drm_exec_prepare_array(struct drm_exec *exec,
 {
 	int ret;
 
+	/*
+	 * Make sure to lock a contended object even when no objects are
+	 * given, otherwise drm_exec_retry_on_contention() would loop
+	 * forever on patterns like:
+	 *
+	 *	ret = drm_exec_prepare_array(exec, objs, num_objects, ...);
+	 *	drm_exec_retry_on_contention(exec);
+	 *
+	 * with num_objects == 0.
+	 */
+	if (!num_objects)
+		return drm_exec_lock_contended(exec);
+
 	for (unsigned int i = 0; i < num_objects; ++i) {
 		ret = drm_exec_prepare_obj(exec, objects[i], num_fences);
 		if (unlikely(ret))