diff --git a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
index 90a753c1695..c054682bdd7 100644
--- a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux.go
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ package oom
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
-	"io/ioutil"
 	"os"
 	"path"
 	"strconv"
@@ -49,16 +48,6 @@ func getPids(cgroupName string) ([]int, error) {
 	return fsManager.GetPids()
 }
 
-func syscallNotExists(err error) bool {
-	if err == nil {
-		return false
-	}
-	if e, ok := err.(*os.SyscallError); ok && os.IsNotExist(e) {
-		return true
-	}
-	return false
-}
-
 // Writes 'value' to /proc/<pid>/oom_score_adj. PID = 0 means self
 // Returns os.ErrNotExist if the `pid` does not exist.
 func applyOOMScoreAdj(pid int, oomScoreAdj int) error {
@@ -78,12 +67,19 @@ func applyOOMScoreAdj(pid int, oomScoreAdj int) error {
 	value := strconv.Itoa(oomScoreAdj)
 	var err error
 	for i := 0; i < maxTries; i++ {
-		if err = ioutil.WriteFile(oomScoreAdjPath, []byte(value), 0700); err != nil {
-			if syscallNotExists(err) {
+		f, err := os.Open(oomScoreAdjPath)
+		if err != nil {
+			if os.IsNotExist(err) {
 				return os.ErrNotExist
 			}
 			err = fmt.Errorf("failed to apply oom-score-adj to pid %d (%v)", pid, err)
+			continue
 		}
+		if _, err := f.Write([]byte(value)); err != nil {
+			err = fmt.Errorf("failed to apply oom-score-adj to pid %d (%v)", pid, err)
+			continue
+		}
+		return nil
 	}
 	return err
 }
@@ -96,20 +92,26 @@ func (oomAdjuster *OOMAdjuster) applyOOMScoreAdjContainer(cgroupName string, oom
 		continueAdjusting := false
 		pidList, err := oomAdjuster.pidLister(cgroupName)
 		if err != nil {
-			if syscallNotExists(err) {
+			if os.IsNotExist(err) {
 				// Nothing to do since the container doesn't exist anymore.
 				return os.ErrNotExist
 			}
 			continueAdjusting = true
-			glog.Errorf("Error getting process list for cgroup %s: %+v", cgroupName, err)
+			glog.V(10).Infof("Error getting process list for cgroup %s: %+v", cgroupName, err)
 		} else if len(pidList) == 0 {
+			glog.V(10).Infof("Pid list is empty")
 			continueAdjusting = true
 		} else {
 			for _, pid := range pidList {
 				if !adjustedProcessSet[pid] {
-					continueAdjusting = true
+					glog.V(10).Infof("pid %d needs to be set", pid)
 					if err = oomAdjuster.ApplyOOMScoreAdj(pid, oomScoreAdj); err == nil {
 						adjustedProcessSet[pid] = true
+					} else if err == os.ErrNotExist {
+						continue
+					} else {
+						glog.V(10).Infof("cannot adjust oom score for pid %d - %v", pid, err)
+						continueAdjusting = true
 					}
 					// Processes can come and go while we try to apply oom score adjust value. So ignore errors here.
 				}
diff --git a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux_test.go b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux_test.go
index c3a850d91be..10e9f3d9ec6 100644
--- a/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux_test.go
+++ b/pkg/util/oom/oom_linux_test.go
@@ -19,7 +19,10 @@ limitations under the License.
 package oom
 
 import (
+	"os"
 	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 )
 
 // Converts a sequence of PID lists into a PID lister.
@@ -62,10 +65,9 @@ func applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence [][]int, maxTries int, appl
 	} else if err != nil {
 		return
 	}
-
 	// Check that OOM scores were applied to the right processes.
 	if len(appliedPids) != len(pidOOMs) {
-		t.Errorf("Applied OOM scores to incorrect number of processes")
+		t.Errorf("Applied OOM scores to incorrect number of processes - %+v vs %v", appliedPids, pidOOMs)
 		return
 	}
 	for _, pid := range appliedPids {
@@ -82,29 +84,21 @@ func TestOOMScoreAdjContainer(t *testing.T) {
 	pidListSequence1 := [][]int{
 		{1, 2},
 	}
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence1, 1, nil, true, t)
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence1, 2, []int{1, 2}, false, t)
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence1, 3, []int{1, 2}, false, t)
-
-	pidListSequence3 := [][]int{
-		{1, 2},
-		{1, 2, 4, 5},
-		{2, 1, 4, 5, 3},
-	}
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence3, 1, nil, true, t)
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence3, 2, nil, true, t)
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence3, 3, nil, true, t)
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence3, 4, []int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}, false, t)
+	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequence1, 1, []int{1, 2}, false, t)
 
 	pidListSequenceLag := [][]int{
 		{},
 		{},
 		{},
 		{1, 2, 4},
-		{1, 2, 4, 5},
 	}
-	for i := 1; i < 5; i++ {
+	for i := 1; i < 4; i++ {
 		applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequenceLag, i, nil, true, t)
 	}
-	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequenceLag, 6, []int{1, 2, 4, 5}, false, t)
+	applyOOMScoreAdjContainerTester(pidListSequenceLag, 4, []int{1, 2, 4}, false, t)
+}
+
+func TestPidListerFailure(t *testing.T) {
+	_, err := getPids("/does/not/exist")
+	assert.True(t, os.IsNotExist(err), "expected getPids to return not exists error. Got %v", err)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/util/procfs/procfs.go b/pkg/util/procfs/procfs.go
index cc432255fb2..d0c38bf21e7 100644
--- a/pkg/util/procfs/procfs.go
+++ b/pkg/util/procfs/procfs.go
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ func (pfs *ProcFS) GetFullContainerName(pid int) (string, error) {
 	filePath := path.Join("/proc", strconv.Itoa(pid), "cgroup")
 	content, err := ioutil.ReadFile(filePath)
 	if err != nil {
-		if e, ok := err.(*os.SyscallError); ok && os.IsNotExist(e) {
+		if os.IsNotExist(err) {
 			return "", os.ErrNotExist
 		}
 		return "", err