diff --git a/src/llama-hparams.cpp b/src/llama-hparams.cpp
index eb2be94b..84eb3b58 100644
--- a/src/llama-hparams.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-hparams.cpp
@@ -2002,11 +2002,14 @@ void llm_load_hparams(
                 hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa = hparams.rope_freq_base_train;
                 ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ROPE_FREQ_BASE_SWA, hparams.rope_freq_base_train_swa, false);
 
-                if (!ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.swa_layers, hparams.n_layer, false)) {
-                    uint32_t swa_period = 4;
-                    ml.get_key(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period);
+                if (uint32_t swa_period; ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, swa_period, false) && swa_period > 0) {
                     for (int il = 0; il < hparams.n_layer; ++il) {
-                        hparams.swa_layers[il] = (swa_period == 0 || (il % swa_period < swa_period - 1));
+                        hparams.swa_layers[il] = (il % swa_period < swa_period - 1);
+                    }
+                } else if (!ml.get_key_or_arr(LLM_KV_ATTENTION_SLIDING_WINDOW_PATTERN, hparams.swa_layers, hparams.n_layer)) {
+                    LLAMA_LOG_WARN("================================ No attention.sliding_window_pattern key found! Assuming a period of 4\n");
+                    for (int il = 0; il < hparams.n_layer; ++il) {
+                        hparams.swa_layers[il] = (il % 4 < 3);
                     }
                 }
 
diff --git a/src/llama-model-loader.cpp b/src/llama-model-loader.cpp
index ff981634..86d59cc4 100644
--- a/src/llama-model-loader.cpp
+++ b/src/llama-model-loader.cpp
@@ -846,6 +846,30 @@ bool llama_model_loader::get_key_or_arr(const enum llm_kv kid, T & result, uint3
     return get_key_or_arr(llm_kv(kid), result, n, required);
 }
 
+bool llama_model_loader::get_key_or_arr(enum llm_kv kid, uint32_t & result, bool required) {
+    const std::string key = llm_kv(kid);
+
+    const int id = gguf_find_key(meta, key.c_str());
+
+    if (id < 0) {
+        if (required) {
+            throw std::runtime_error(format("key not found in model: %s", key.c_str()));
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    // throw and error if type is an array
+    if (gguf_get_kv_type(meta, id) == GGUF_TYPE_ARRAY) {
+        if (required) {
+            throw std::runtime_error(format("expected scalar, found array for key: %s", key.c_str()));
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    return get_key(key, result, required);
+}
+
+
 const char * llama_model_loader::get_tensor_name(int i) const {
     return weights.at(i).tensor->name;
 }
diff --git a/src/llama-model-loader.h b/src/llama-model-loader.h
index 01b47ebf..30390e42 100644
--- a/src/llama-model-loader.h
+++ b/src/llama-model-loader.h
@@ -127,6 +127,8 @@ struct llama_model_loader {
     template<typename T>
     bool get_key_or_arr(const enum llm_kv kid, T & result, uint32_t n, const bool required = true);
 
+    bool get_key_or_arr(enum llm_kv kid, uint32_t & result, bool required = true);
+
     const std::string& get_arch_name() const { return arch_name; }
 
     enum llm_arch get_arch() const { return llm_kv.arch; }