diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index 9f6fd85058..bad56aa146 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -19178,18 +19178,19 @@ virDomainDefParseCaps(virDomainDefPtr def,
         goto cleanup;
     }
 
-    if (!(flags & VIR_DOMAIN_DEF_PARSE_SKIP_OSTYPE_CHECKS)) {
-        if (!(capsdata = virCapabilitiesDomainDataLookup(caps,
-                def->os.type, def->os.arch, def->virtType,
-                NULL, NULL)))
+    if (!(capsdata = virCapabilitiesDomainDataLookup(caps, def->os.type,
+                                                     def->os.arch,
+                                                     def->virtType,
+                                                     NULL, NULL))) {
+        if (!(flags & VIR_DOMAIN_DEF_PARSE_SKIP_OSTYPE_CHECKS))
             goto cleanup;
-
+        virResetLastError();
+    } else {
         if (!def->os.arch)
             def->os.arch = capsdata->arch;
         if ((!def->os.machine &&
-             VIR_STRDUP(def->os.machine, capsdata->machinetype) < 0)) {
+             VIR_STRDUP(def->os.machine, capsdata->machinetype) < 0))
             goto cleanup;
-        }
     }
 
     ret = 0;
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/missing-machine.xml b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/missing-machine.xml
index 4ce7b377a5..2900baec90 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/missing-machine.xml
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/missing-machine.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   <currentMemory unit='KiB'>219100</currentMemory>
   <vcpu placement='static' cpuset='1'>1</vcpu>
   <os>
-    <type arch='i686'>hvm</type>
+    <type arch='alpha'>hvm</type>
     <boot dev='hd'/>
   </os>
   <clock offset='utc'/>
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 1a936faef1..03b6d92912 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -2773,6 +2773,9 @@ mymain(void)
             QEMU_CAPS_OBJECT_GPEX,
             QEMU_CAPS_NEC_USB_XHCI);
 
+    /* VM XML has invalid arch/ostype/virttype combo, but the SKIP flag
+     * will avoid the error. Still, we expect qemu driver to complain about
+     * missing machine error, and not crash */
     DO_TEST_PARSE_FLAGS_ERROR("missing-machine",
                               VIR_DOMAIN_DEF_PARSE_SKIP_OSTYPE_CHECKS,
                               NONE);