diff --git a/common/cmd_bootm.c b/common/cmd_bootm.c
index a8f85e93b28..905567293cd 100644
--- a/common/cmd_bootm.c
+++ b/common/cmd_bootm.c
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ static int bootm_load_os(image_info_t os, ulong *load_end, int boot_progress)
 		printf ("   Uncompressing %s ... ", type_name);
 		if (gunzip ((void *)load, unc_len,
 					(uchar *)image_start, &image_len) != 0) {
-			puts ("GUNZIP: uncompress or overwrite error "
+			puts ("GUNZIP: uncompress, out-of-mem or overwrite error "
 				"- must RESET board to recover\n");
 			if (boot_progress)
 				show_boot_progress (-6);
diff --git a/lib_generic/gunzip.c b/lib_generic/gunzip.c
index 74f0bf9f3e1..5bcf5b7b24f 100644
--- a/lib_generic/gunzip.c
+++ b/lib_generic/gunzip.c
@@ -102,8 +102,9 @@ int gunzip(void *dst, int dstlen, unsigned char *src, unsigned long *lenp)
 	s.next_out = dst;
 	s.avail_out = dstlen;
 	r = inflate(&s, Z_FINISH);
-	if (r != Z_OK && r != Z_STREAM_END) {
+	if (r != Z_STREAM_END) {
 		printf ("Error: inflate() returned %d\n", r);
+		inflateEnd(&s);
 		return (-1);
 	}
 	*lenp = s.next_out - (unsigned char *) dst;