diff -Naur NetworkManager-0.8/src/nm-device-wifi.c NetworkManager-0.8-dev/src/nm-device-wifi.c
--- NetworkManager-0.8/src/nm-device-wifi.c	2010-02-18 10:47:45.000000000 -0500
+++ NetworkManager-0.8-dev/src/nm-device-wifi.c	2010-03-06 10:51:31.527438936 -0500
@@ -1789,11 +1789,16 @@
 	NMDeviceWifi *self = NM_DEVICE_WIFI (user_data);
 	NMDeviceWifiPrivate *priv = NM_DEVICE_WIFI_GET_PRIVATE (self);
 	gboolean backoff = FALSE;
+	NMDeviceState state;
+
+	state = nm_device_get_state (NM_DEVICE (self));
 
 	if (check_scanning_allowed (self)) {
 		if (nm_supplicant_interface_request_scan (priv->supplicant.iface)) {
-			/* success */
-			backoff = TRUE;
+			if ((state == NM_DEVICE_STATE_ACTIVATED) || (nm_supplicant_interface_request_scan (priv->supplicant.iface))) {
+				/* success */
+				backoff = TRUE;
+			}
 		}
 	}