diff --git a/[refs] b/[refs]
index e846e1e0980a..7efb1b616f99 100644
--- a/[refs]
+++ b/[refs]
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 ---
-refs/heads/master: 6a51830e14529063cb2685921e1177d9af50e49a
+refs/heads/master: 8377bc808029251c2c0f52116cf87d80291b25bf
diff --git a/trunk/drivers/md/md.c b/trunk/drivers/md/md.c
index 11457a28a14c..61767f1962eb 100644
--- a/trunk/drivers/md/md.c
+++ b/trunk/drivers/md/md.c
@@ -1652,6 +1652,8 @@ static void md_update_sb(mddev_t * mddev, int force_change)
 	int sync_req;
 	int nospares = 0;
 
+	if (mddev->external)
+		return;
 repeat:
 	spin_lock_irq(&mddev->write_lock);