diff --git a/code/tools/asm/q3asm.c b/code/tools/asm/q3asm.c
index c740c7f7..d57bbc0c 100644
--- a/code/tools/asm/q3asm.c
+++ b/code/tools/asm/q3asm.c
@@ -386,8 +386,12 @@ static void sort_symbols ()
   symbol_t *s;
   symbol_t **symlist;
 
+  if(!symbols)
+  	return;
+
 //crumb("sort_symbols: Constructing symlist array\n");
   for (elems = 0, s = symbols; s; s = s->next, elems++) /* nop */ ;
+
   symlist = malloc(elems * sizeof(symbol_t*));
   for (i = 0, s = symbols; s; s = s->next, i++)
     {