diff --git a/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs b/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
index 3f4465d0d2..3abfa3661c 100644
--- a/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
+++ b/drivers/acpid/src/aml_physmem.rs
@@ -178,7 +178,9 @@ impl AmlPhysMemHandler {
         let pci_fd = if let Some(pci_fd) = pci_fd_opt {
             Some(libredox::Fd::new(pci_fd.raw()))
         } else {
-            log::error!("pci_fd is not registered");
+            log::warn!(
+                "acpid: AmlPhysMemHandler created without PCI fd; AML init will retry once pcid sends it via scheme:acpid sendfd"
+            );
             None
         };
         Self {
diff --git a/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs b/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
index a066f14e9d..cc7ead81d9 100644
--- a/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
+++ b/drivers/acpid/src/scheme.rs
@@ -1070,10 +1070,27 @@ impl SchemeSync for AcpiScheme<'_, '_> {
         }
         let new_fd = libredox::Fd::new(new_fd);
 
+        // Allow replacement: pcid may resend the fd after a restart,
+        // and the previous one-shot EINVAL left aml init permanently
+        // broken if the first sendfd raced with an early aml request.
         if self.pci_fd.is_some() {
-            return Err(Error::new(EINVAL));
-        } else {
-            self.pci_fd = Some(new_fd);
+            log::warn!(
+                "acpid: replacing previously-registered PCI fd; AML symbol cache will rebuild on next request"
+            );
+        }
+        self.pci_fd = Some(new_fd);
+
+        // Kick aml symbol init now that pci_fd is registered. The
+        // next aml request will either find a working cache or get a
+        // fresh error log here; either way the failure mode is
+        // observable rather than silently deferred to "the next
+        // caller retries".
+        match self.ctx.aml_symbols(self.pci_fd.as_ref()) {
+            Ok(_) => log::info!("acpid: AML symbols initialized on PCI fd registration"),
+            Err(err) => {
+                log::error!("acpid: AML symbol init failed after PCI fd registration");
+                log::error!("acpid: AML error detail: {:?}", err);
+            }
         }
 
         Ok(num_fds)