diff --git a/test/automation/src/code.ts b/test/automation/src/code.ts
index 95471907abf..3d1743e0f28 100644
--- a/test/automation/src/code.ts
+++ b/test/automation/src/code.ts
@@ -29,7 +29,15 @@ export interface SpawnOptions {
 	browser?: 'chromium' | 'webkit' | 'firefox';
 }
 
+let stopped = false;
+process.on('exit', () => stopped = true);
+process.on('SIGINT', () => stopped = true);
+process.on('SIGTERM', () => stopped = true);
+
 export async function spawn(options: SpawnOptions): Promise<Code> {
+	if (stopped) {
+		throw new Error('Smoke test process has terminated, refusing to spawn Code');
+	}
 
 	await copyExtension(repoPath, options.extensionsPath, 'vscode-notebook-tests');
 
diff --git a/test/automation/src/playwrightDriver.ts b/test/automation/src/playwrightDriver.ts
index eb68ebea296..a7cc9ee74e3 100644
--- a/test/automation/src/playwrightDriver.ts
+++ b/test/automation/src/playwrightDriver.ts
@@ -61,22 +61,32 @@ class PlaywrightDriver implements IDriver {
 
 	async exitApplication() {
 		try {
-			await this.context.tracing.stop({ path: join(logsPath, `playwright-trace-${traceCounter++}.zip`) });
+			await this.warnAfter(this.context.tracing.stop({ path: join(logsPath, `playwright-trace-${traceCounter++}.zip`) }), 5000, 'Stopping playwright trace took >5seconds');
 		} catch (error) {
 			console.warn(`Failed to stop playwright tracing: ${error}`);
 		}
 
 		try {
-			await this.browser.close();
+			await this.warnAfter(this.browser.close(), 5000, 'Closing playwright browser took >5seconds');
 		} catch (error) {
 			console.warn(`Failed to close browser: ${error}`);
 		}
 
-		await teardown(this.server);
+		await this.warnAfter(teardown(this.server), 5000, 'Tearing down server took >5seconds');
 
 		return false;
 	}
 
+	private async warnAfter(promise: Promise<void>, delay: number, msg: string): Promise<void> {
+		const timeout = setTimeout(() => console.warn(msg), delay);
+
+		try {
+			await promise;
+		} finally {
+			clearTimeout(timeout);
+		}
+	}
+
 	async dispatchKeybinding(windowId: number, keybinding: string) {
 		const chords = keybinding.split(' ');
 		for (let i = 0; i < chords.length; i++) {
diff --git a/test/smoke/src/main.ts b/test/smoke/src/main.ts
index f526eb19bf4..8f23a483e15 100644
--- a/test/smoke/src/main.ts
+++ b/test/smoke/src/main.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
  *--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
 import * as fs from 'fs';
-import { timeout } from './utils';
 import { promisify } from 'util';
 import { gracefulify } from 'graceful-fs';
 import * as cp from 'child_process';
@@ -336,8 +335,6 @@ before(async function () {
 });
 
 after(async function () {
-	await timeout(500); // wait for shutdown
-
 	if (opts.log) {
 		const logsDir = path.join(userDataDir, 'logs');
 		const destLogsDir = path.join(path.dirname(opts.log), 'logs');