diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index f2c3298c..83724a8e 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ SVN-HEAD
   pwmconfig: Drop support for kernels 2.4 and earlier
   fancontrol: Don't round temperature values
               Drop support for kernels 2.4 and earlier
+              Exit if configuration file can't be read
   maxilife scripts: Delete (driver never ported to Linux 2.6)
   sensord: Accept negative temperatures in RRD database
            Don't bail out on transient errors (#2330)
diff --git a/prog/pwm/fancontrol b/prog/pwm/fancontrol
index f52da908..b49e1ba5 100755
--- a/prog/pwm/fancontrol
+++ b/prog/pwm/fancontrol
@@ -54,6 +54,12 @@ declare -i pwmval
 
 function LoadConfig {
 	echo "Loading configuration from $1 ..."
+	if [ ! -r "$1" ]
+	then
+		echo "Error: Can't read configuration file"
+		exit 1
+	fi
+
 	# grep configuration from file
 	INTERVAL=`egrep '^INTERVAL=.*$' $1 | sed -e 's/INTERVAL=//g'`
 	FCTEMPS=`egrep '^FCTEMPS=.*$' $1 | sed -e 's/FCTEMPS=//g'`