diff --git a/hw/audio/intel-hda.c b/hw/audio/intel-hda.c
index 4e19e8b..cd95340 100644
--- a/hw/audio/intel-hda.c
+++ b/hw/audio/intel-hda.c
@@ -1132,6 +1132,8 @@
 {
     IntelHDAState *d = INTEL_HDA(pci);
     uint8_t *conf = d->pci.config;
+    Error *err = NULL;
+    int ret;
 
     d->name = object_get_typename(OBJECT(d));
 
@@ -1140,13 +1142,27 @@
     /* HDCTL off 0x40 bit 0 selects signaling mode (1-HDA, 0 - Ac97) 18.1.19 */
     conf[0x40] = 0x01;
 
+    if (d->msi != ON_OFF_AUTO_OFF) {
+        ret = msi_init(&d->pci, d->old_msi_addr ? 0x50 : 0x60,
+                       1, true, false, &err);
+        /* Any error other than -ENOTSUP(board's MSI support is broken)
+         * is a programming error */
+        assert(!ret || ret == -ENOTSUP);
+        if (ret && d->msi == ON_OFF_AUTO_ON) {
+            /* Can't satisfy user's explicit msi=on request, fail */
+            error_append_hint(&err, "You have to use msi=auto (default) or "
+                    "msi=off with this machine type.\n");
+            error_propagate(errp, err);
+            return;
+        }
+        assert(!err || d->msi == ON_OFF_AUTO_AUTO);
+        /* With msi=auto, we fall back to MSI off silently */
+        error_free(err);
+    }
+
     memory_region_init_io(&d->mmio, OBJECT(d), &intel_hda_mmio_ops, d,
                           "intel-hda", 0x4000);
     pci_register_bar(&d->pci, 0, 0, &d->mmio);
-    if (d->msi != ON_OFF_AUTO_OFF) {
-         /* TODO check for errors */
-        msi_init(&d->pci, d->old_msi_addr ? 0x50 : 0x60, 1, true, false);
-    }
 
     hda_codec_bus_init(DEVICE(pci), &d->codecs, sizeof(d->codecs),
                        intel_hda_response, intel_hda_xfer);