diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_pagefault.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_pagefault.c
index e81ca24df37f..c82b8bc8bc70 100644
--- a/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_pagefault.c
+++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_pagefault.c
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 #include "xe_log.h"
 #include "xe_pagefault.h"
 #include "xe_pagefault_types.h"
+#include "xe_pm.h"
 #include "xe_svm.h"
 #include "xe_trace_bo.h"
 #include "xe_vm.h"
@@ -610,6 +611,13 @@ static void xe_pagefault_queue_work(struct work_struct *w)
 	u64 cache_start = XE_PAGEFAULT_CACHE_START_INVALID, cache_end = 0;
 	u32 cache_asid = 0;
 
+	/*
+	 * A live VM holds a PM reference, but a torn-down VM does not.
+	 * Guard the entire worker loop to safely drain stale faults and
+	 * prevent autosuspends from desyncing batched CT flushes.
+	 */
+	guard(xe_pm_runtime)(xe);
+
 #define USM_QUEUE_MAX_RUNTIME_MS      20
 	threshold = jiffies + msecs_to_jiffies(USM_QUEUE_MAX_RUNTIME_MS);