diff --git a/Documentation/hwmon/hwmon-kernel-api.txt b/Documentation/hwmon/hwmon-kernel-api.txt
index 4981df157b04..eb7a78aebb38 100644
--- a/Documentation/hwmon/hwmon-kernel-api.txt
+++ b/Documentation/hwmon/hwmon-kernel-api.txt
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ hwmon_device_register_with_info is the most comprehensive and preferred means
 to register a hardware monitoring device. It creates the standard sysfs
 attributes in the hardware monitoring core, letting the driver focus on reading
 from and writing to the chip instead of having to bother with sysfs attributes.
-The parent device parameter as well as the chip parameter must not be NULL. Its
+The parent device parameter cannot be NULL with non-NULL chip info. Its
 parameters are described in more detail below.
 
 devm_hwmon_device_register_with_info is similar to
diff --git a/drivers/hwmon/hwmon.c b/drivers/hwmon/hwmon.c
index fb82d8ee0dd6..c4051a3e63c2 100644
--- a/drivers/hwmon/hwmon.c
+++ b/drivers/hwmon/hwmon.c
@@ -695,12 +695,11 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(hwmon_device_register_with_groups);
 
 /**
  * hwmon_device_register_with_info - register w/ hwmon
- * @dev: the parent device (mandatory)
- * @name: hwmon name attribute (mandatory)
- * @drvdata: driver data to attach to created device (optional)
- * @chip: pointer to hwmon chip information (mandatory)
+ * @dev: the parent device
+ * @name: hwmon name attribute
+ * @drvdata: driver data to attach to created device
+ * @chip: pointer to hwmon chip information
  * @extra_groups: pointer to list of additional non-standard attribute groups
- *	(optional)
  *
  * hwmon_device_unregister() must be called when the device is no
  * longer needed.
@@ -713,10 +712,13 @@ hwmon_device_register_with_info(struct device *dev, const char *name,
 				const struct hwmon_chip_info *chip,
 				const struct attribute_group **extra_groups)
 {
-	if (!dev || !name || !chip)
+	if (!name)
 		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
 
-	if (!chip->ops || !chip->ops->is_visible || !chip->info)
+	if (chip && (!chip->ops || !chip->ops->is_visible || !chip->info))
+		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+
+	if (chip && !dev)
 		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
 
 	return __hwmon_device_register(dev, name, drvdata, chip, extra_groups);