diff --git a/db/instance.cpp b/db/instance.cpp
index 769b911d10b..e436ba2f9ca 100644
--- a/db/instance.cpp
+++ b/db/instance.cpp
@@ -497,6 +497,7 @@ namespace mongo {
         if( ntoreturn ) 
             ss << " ntoreturn:" << ntoreturn;
 
+		time_t start;
         int pass = 0;        
         bool exhaust = false;
         QueryResult* msgdata;
@@ -509,6 +510,17 @@ namespace mongo {
             catch ( GetMoreWaitException& ) { 
                 exhaust = false;
                 massert(13073, "shutting down", !inShutdown() );
+				if( pass == 0 ) { 
+  				    start = time(0);
+				}
+				else { 
+				  if( time(0) - start >= 4 ) {
+					// after about 4 seconds, return.  this is a sanity check.  pass stops at 1000 normally 
+					// for DEV this helps and also if sleep is highly inaccurate on a platform.  we want to 
+					// return occasionally so slave can checkpoint.
+					pass = 10000;
+				  }
+				}
                 pass++;
                 DEV 
                     sleepmillis(20);
diff --git a/db/query.cpp b/db/query.cpp
index 5a3ee585fee..6aa8a04712a 100644
--- a/db/query.cpp
+++ b/db/query.cpp
@@ -324,7 +324,6 @@ namespace mongo {
 
             while ( 1 ) {
                 if ( !c->ok() ) {
-//                    log() << "TEMP Tailable : " << c->tailable() << ' ' << (queryOptions & QueryOption_AwaitData) << endl;
                     if ( c->tailable() ) {
                         /* when a tailable cursor hits "EOF", ok() goes false, and current() is null.  however 
                            advance() can still be retries as a reactivation attempt.  when there is new data, it will