diff --git a/Lib/test/test_float.py b/Lib/test/test_float.py
index fb47db8eb08..d616ad9543d 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_float.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_float.py
@@ -99,12 +99,25 @@ class IEEEFormatTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
                               ('<f', LE_FLOAT_NAN)]:
                 struct.unpack(fmt, data)
 
+# on an IEEE platform, "overflowing" operations produce infinity
+
+class IEEEOperationsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
+    if float.__getformat__("double").startswith("IEEE"):
+        def test_double_infinity(self):
+            big = 4.8e159
+            pro = big*big
+            self.assertEquals(repr(pro), 'inf')
+            sqr = big**2
+            self.assertEquals(repr(sqr), 'inf')
+
 
 def test_main():
     test_support.run_unittest(
         FormatFunctionsTestCase,
         UnknownFormatTestCase,
-        IEEEFormatTestCase)
+        IEEEFormatTestCase,
+        IEEEOperationsTestCase,
+        )
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     test_main()
diff --git a/Objects/floatobject.c b/Objects/floatobject.c
index fa090846692..5aeabd9d93f 100644
--- a/Objects/floatobject.c
+++ b/Objects/floatobject.c
@@ -821,12 +821,12 @@ float_pow(PyObject *v, PyObject *w, PyObject *z)
 	ix = pow(iv, iw);
 	PyFPE_END_PROTECT(ix)
 	Py_ADJUST_ERANGE1(ix);
-	if (errno != 0) {
+        /* we need to ignore ERANGE here and just return inf */
+	if (errno != 0 && errno != ERANGE) {
 		/* We don't expect any errno value other than ERANGE, but
 		 * the range of libm bugs appears unbounded.
 		 */
-		PyErr_SetFromErrno(errno == ERANGE ? PyExc_OverflowError :
-						     PyExc_ValueError);
+		PyErr_SetFromErrno(PyExc_ValueError);
 		return NULL;
 	}
 	return PyFloat_FromDouble(ix);