diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/stats/cri_stats_provider.go b/pkg/kubelet/stats/cri_stats_provider.go
index 0ecbc1d53c9..9d8091e62c1 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/stats/cri_stats_provider.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/stats/cri_stats_provider.go
@@ -590,7 +590,6 @@ func (p *criStatsProvider) addProcessStats(
 	processStats := cadvisorInfoToProcessStats(container)
 	// Sum up all of the process stats for each of the containers to obtain the cumulative pod level process count
 	ps.ProcessStats = mergeProcessStats(ps.ProcessStats, processStats)
-	return
 }
 
 func (p *criStatsProvider) makeContainerStats(
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/stats/helper_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/stats/helper_test.go
index 050a8102c9c..d0bc23b69fa 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/stats/helper_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/stats/helper_test.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import (
 
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	statsapi "k8s.io/kubelet/pkg/apis/stats/v1alpha1"
-	"k8s.io/utils/pointer"
+	"k8s.io/utils/ptr"
 )
 
 func TestCustomMetrics(t *testing.T) {
@@ -115,21 +115,21 @@ func TestMergeProcessStats(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 			desc:     "first non-nil, second not",
-			first:    &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
+			first:    &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
 			second:   nil,
-			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
+			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
 		},
 		{
 			desc:     "first nil, second non-nil",
 			first:    nil,
-			second:   &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
-			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
+			second:   &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
+			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
 		},
 		{
 			desc:     "both non nill",
-			first:    &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
-			second:   &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(100)},
-			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: pointer.Uint64(200)},
+			first:    &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
+			second:   &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](100)},
+			expected: &statsapi.ProcessStats{ProcessCount: ptr.To[uint64](200)},
 		},
 	} {
 		t.Run(tc.desc, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/test/e2e_node/summary_test.go b/test/e2e_node/summary_test.go
index 948d3605cf5..77c2fa394a6 100644
--- a/test/e2e_node/summary_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e_node/summary_test.go
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ var _ = SIGDescribe("Summary API", framework.WithNodeConformance(), func() {
 					"InodesUsed":     bounded(0, 1e8),
 				}),
 				"ProcessStats": ptrMatchAllFields(gstruct.Fields{
-					"ProcessCount": bounded(0, 1e8),
+					"ProcessCount": bounded(1, 1e8),
 				}),
 			})