diff --git a/tests/kernel/common/src/boot_delay.c b/tests/kernel/common/src/boot_delay.c
index d4b80eb4269..74861e7c847 100644
--- a/tests/kernel/common/src/boot_delay.c
+++ b/tests/kernel/common/src/boot_delay.c
@@ -19,6 +19,17 @@
  */
 void test_bootdelay(void)
 {
+	if (CONFIG_SYS_CLOCK_HW_CYCLES_PER_SEC > 1000000000) {
+		/* Systems with very fast counters (like the x86 TSC)
+		 * and long firmware startup (often 10+ seconds on a
+		 * EFI PC!)  can easily roll this over during startup,
+		 * and there's no way to detect that case with a 32
+		 * bit OS API.  Just skip it if we have a GHz-scale
+		 * counter.
+		 */
+		ztest_test_skip();
+	}
+
 	uint32_t current_cycles = k_cycle_get_32();
 
 	/* compare this with the boot delay specified */