diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000/e1000_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000/e1000_main.c
index 46e6544ed1b7..b655fe4f4c2e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000/e1000_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/e1000/e1000_main.c
@@ -144,6 +144,11 @@ static bool e1000_clean_rx_irq(struct e1000_adapter *adapter,
 static bool e1000_clean_jumbo_rx_irq(struct e1000_adapter *adapter,
 				     struct e1000_rx_ring *rx_ring,
 				     int *work_done, int work_to_do);
+static void e1000_alloc_dummy_rx_buffers(struct e1000_adapter *adapter,
+					 struct e1000_rx_ring *rx_ring,
+					 int cleaned_count)
+{
+}
 static void e1000_alloc_rx_buffers(struct e1000_adapter *adapter,
 				   struct e1000_rx_ring *rx_ring,
 				   int cleaned_count);
@@ -3531,8 +3536,11 @@ static int e1000_change_mtu(struct net_device *netdev, int new_mtu)
 		msleep(1);
 	/* e1000_down has a dependency on max_frame_size */
 	hw->max_frame_size = max_frame;
-	if (netif_running(netdev))
+	if (netif_running(netdev)) {
+		/* prevent buffers from being reallocated */
+		adapter->alloc_rx_buf = e1000_alloc_dummy_rx_buffers;
 		e1000_down(adapter);
+	}
 
 	/* NOTE: netdev_alloc_skb reserves 16 bytes, and typically NET_IP_ALIGN
 	 * means we reserve 2 more, this pushes us to allocate from the next