diff --git a/crosperf/suite_runner.py b/crosperf/suite_runner.py
index 0318db1..342e954 100644
--- a/crosperf/suite_runner.py
+++ b/crosperf/suite_runner.py
@@ -115,6 +115,10 @@
         'fi; '
         # Set governor to performance for each cpu
         'for f in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq; do '
+        # Skip writing scaling_governor if cpu is not online.
+        '[[ -e ${f/cpufreq/online} ]] && grep -q 0 ${f/cpufreq/online} '
+        '&& continue; '
+        # The cpu is online, can update.
         'cd $f; '
         'echo performance > scaling_governor; '
         # Uncomment rest of lines to enable setting frequency by crosperf
diff --git a/crosperf/suite_runner_unittest.py b/crosperf/suite_runner_unittest.py
index 081c828..0c8d17d 100755
--- a/crosperf/suite_runner_unittest.py
+++ b/crosperf/suite_runner_unittest.py
@@ -206,6 +206,10 @@
         'fi; '
         # Set governor to performance for each cpu
         'for f in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq; do '
+        # Skip writing scaling_governor if cpu is not online.
+        '[[ -e ${f/cpufreq/online} ]] && grep -q 0 ${f/cpufreq/online} '
+        '&& continue; '
+        # This cpu is online, can update.
         'cd $f; '
         'echo performance > scaling_governor; '
         'done')