diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.err b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.err
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f46673eb62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.err
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+unsupported configuration: Configuring the 'tsc' timer is not supported for virtType=kvm arch=s390x machine=s390-ccw guests
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..11559bb52b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/non-x86_64-timer-error.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<domain type='kvm'>
+  <name>test</name>
+  <uuid>9aa4b45c-b9dd-45ef-91fe-862b27b4231f</uuid>
+  <memory>262144</memory>
+  <currentMemory>262144</currentMemory>
+  <os>
+    <type arch='s390x' machine='s390-ccw'>hvm</type>
+  </os>
+  <clock offset='utc'>
+    <timer name='tsc' present='yes'/>
+  </clock>
+  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
+  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
+  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
+  <devices>
+    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-s390x</emulator>
+  </devices>
+</domain>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 639447e417..a3c91fd5de 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -1141,6 +1141,8 @@ mymain(void)
             QEMU_CAPS_DEVICE_ZPCI,
             QEMU_CAPS_CCW,
             QEMU_CAPS_VIRTIO_S390);
+    DO_TEST_PARSE_ERROR("non-x86_64-timer-error",
+                        QEMU_CAPS_VIRTIO_S390);
     DO_TEST("disk-order", QEMU_CAPS_VIRTIO_BLK_SCSI);
     DO_TEST("disk-virtio-queues",
             QEMU_CAPS_VIRTIO_BLK_NUM_QUEUES);