diff --git a/src/CHANGELOG b/src/CHANGELOG
index 22004fc8a..74909644f 100644
--- a/src/CHANGELOG
+++ b/src/CHANGELOG
@@ -39,6 +39,9 @@ ECL 8.9.0:
  - In Unix-type systems, ECL now installs with a "soname" and using versioned
    directory names, such as /usr/lib/ecl-8.9.0, /usr/lib/libecl.so.8.9, etc
 
+ - New configuration flag, --without-fpe, to disable floating point exception
+   code in platforms that have buggy implementations of feenableexcept().
+
 * Bugs fixed:
 
  - The optimizer for COERCE might enter an infinite loop for certain
diff --git a/src/c/unixint.d b/src/c/unixint.d
index 18299d2fc..891ac051d 100644
--- a/src/c/unixint.d
+++ b/src/c/unixint.d
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 */
 
 #include <ecl/ecl.h>
-#if defined(HAVE_FENV_H)
+#if defined(HAVE_FENV_H) && !defined(ECL_AVOID_FENV_H)
 # define _GNU_SOURCE
 # include <fenv.h>
 # ifndef FE_UNDERFLOW
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ handle_signal(int sig)
 		break;
 	case SIGFPE: {
 		cl_object condition = @'arithmetic-error';
-#if defined(HAVE_FENV_H)
+#if defined(HAVE_FENV_H) & !defined(ECL_AVOID_FENV_H)
 		int bits = fetestexcept(FE_ALL_EXCEPT);
 		if (bits & FE_DIVBYZERO)
 			condition = @'division-by-zero';
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ BOOL WINAPI W32_console_ctrl_handler(DWORD type)
 cl_object
 si_trap_fpe(cl_object condition, cl_object flag)
 {
-#if (defined(HAVE_FENV_H) && defined(HAVE_FEENABLEEXCEPT)) || defined(_MSC_VER) || defined(mingw32)
+#if (defined(HAVE_FENV_H) && defined(HAVE_FEENABLEEXCEPT) && !defined(ECL_AVOID_FENV_H)) || defined(_MSC_VER) || defined(mingw32)
 	static int last_bits = 0;
 	int bits = 0;
 	if (condition == @'division-by-zero')
diff --git a/src/configure b/src/configure
index c692e3e88..dc4a9fd92 100755
--- a/src/configure
+++ b/src/configure
@@ -786,6 +786,7 @@ with_defsystem
 with_cmp
 with_rt
 with_profile
+with_fpe
 enable_unicode
 enable_longdouble
 enable_c99complex
@@ -1488,6 +1489,7 @@ Optional Packages:
   --with-rt               include MIT-RT testing environment (default=YES)
   --with-profile          include CMUCL's simple profiler (default=YES if
                           Boehm-Weiser garbage collector used)
+  --with-fpe              detect floating point exceptions (default=YES)
   --with-x                use the X Window System
 
 Some influential environment variables:
@@ -2215,6 +2217,15 @@ else
 fi
 
 
+
+# Check whether --with-fpe was given.
+if test "${with_fpe+set}" = set; then
+  withval=$with_fpe;
+else
+  with_fpe=yes
+fi
+
+
 # Check whether --enable-unicode was given.
 if test "${enable_unicode+set}" = set; then
   enableval=$enable_unicode;
@@ -5170,6 +5181,13 @@ fi
 
 
 
+if test "${with_fpe}" != yes; then
+   cat >>confdefs.h <<\_ACEOF
+#define ECL_AVOID_FPE_H 1
+_ACEOF
+
+fi
+
 
 
 { $as_echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for X" >&5
diff --git a/src/configure.in b/src/configure.in
index 19785de83..b34466019 100644
--- a/src/configure.in
+++ b/src/configure.in
@@ -171,6 +171,12 @@ AC_ARG_WITH(profile,
                   [(default=YES if Boehm-Weiser garbage collector used)]),
   [], [with_profile=yes])
 
+AC_ARG_WITH(fpe,
+  AS_HELP_STRING( [--with-fpe],
+                  [detect floating point exceptions]
+                  [(default=YES)]),
+  [], [with_fpe=yes])
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(unicode,
   AS_HELP_STRING( [--enable-unicode],
                   [enable support for unicode (default=NO)]),
@@ -414,6 +420,12 @@ AC_SUBST(SONAME1)
 AC_SUBST(SONAME)
 AC_SUBST(SONAME_LDFLAGS)
 
+dnl ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+dnl Deactivate floating point exceptions if asked to
+if test "${with_fpe}" != yes; then
+   AC_DEFINE(ECL_AVOID_FPE_H)
+fi
+
 dnl =====================================================================
 dnl Checks for header files
 
diff --git a/src/h/config.h.in b/src/h/config.h.in
index b156cedeb..7252d2708 100644
--- a/src/h/config.h.in
+++ b/src/h/config.h.in
@@ -266,6 +266,8 @@ typedef unsigned @CL_FIXNUM_TYPE@ cl_hashkey;
 #undef HAVE_FENV_H
 /* can activate individual traps in floating point environment		*/
 #undef HAVE_FEENABLEEXCEPT
+/* do we want to deactivate all support for floating point exceptions   */
+#undef ECL_AVOID_FPE_H
 /* has support for large files						*/
 #undef HAVE_FSEEKO
 /* the tzset() function gets the current time zone			*/
@@ -380,7 +382,11 @@ typedef unsigned @CL_FIXNUM_TYPE@ cl_hashkey;
 
 #define ECL_ARCHITECTURE "@ARCHITECTURE@"
 
-#include "@ECL_FPE_CODE@"
+#ifdef ECL_AVOID_FPE_H
+# define ecl_detect_fpe()
+#else
+# include "@ECL_FPE_CODE@"
+#endif
 
 #if defined(ECL_THREADS)
 # if defined(darwin) || defined(freebsd) || defined(gnu)