Index: sys/dev/nvme/nvme_qpair.c
===================================================================
--- sys/dev/nvme/nvme_qpair.c
+++ sys/dev/nvme/nvme_qpair.c
@@ -615,6 +615,23 @@
 			qpair->sq_head = cpl.sqhd;
 			done++;
 		} else if (!in_panic) {
+			/*
+			 * Sanity check: make sure we've submitted a command.
+			 * At least one NVMe device will generate a surious
+			 * completion interrupt on startup. This lets us ignore
+			 * these silently. We only check here when we would
+			 * otherwise report on a missing completion. Since the
+			 * controller also reads '0' when this happens, the
+			 * phase check above is a false positive.
+			 */
+			if (qpair->num_cmds == 0) {
+				if (bootverbose)
+					nvme_printf(qpair->ctrlr,
+					    "Warning: Completion interrupt before commands submitted queue %d\n",
+					    qpair->id);
+				return (false);
+			}
+
 			/*
 			 * A missing tracker is normally an error.  However, a
 			 * panic can stop the CPU this routine is running on