diff --git a/test-case/check-sof-logger.sh b/test-case/check-sof-logger.sh
index 0ba4b428..473a5e2f 100755
--- a/test-case/check-sof-logger.sh
+++ b/test-case/check-sof-logger.sh
@@ -71,16 +71,21 @@ func_lib_check_sudo
 
 run_loggers()
 {
-    local loggerPID etrace_exit
+    local etrace_exit
+
+    # This test is not really supposed to run while the DSP is busy at
+    # the same time, so $data_file will hopefully not be long.
+    local dma_collect_secs=2
 
     dlogi "Trying to get the DMA trace log with background sof-logger ..."
     dlogc \
     "sudo $loggerBin  -t -f 3 -l  $ldcFile  -o  $data_file  2>  $error_file  &"
-    sudo "$loggerBin" -t -f 3 -l "$ldcFile" -o "$data_file" 2> "$error_file" & loggerPID=$!
+    sudo timeout -k 3 --preserve-status "$dma_collect_secs"  \
+         "$loggerBin" -t -f 3 -l "$ldcFile" \
+         -o "$data_file" 2> "$error_file" & dmaPID=$!
 
-    # This test is not really supposed to run while the DSP is busy at
-    # the same time, so $data_file should be short enough.
-    sleep 2
+    sleep "$dma_collect_secs"
+    wait "$dmaPID"
 
     dlogi "Trying to get the etrace mailbox ..."
     dlogc \
@@ -90,9 +95,6 @@ run_loggers()
 
     printf '\n'
 
-    dlogc "kill $loggerPID # DMA trace"
-    kill "$loggerPID"
-
     return $etrace_exit
 }
 
@@ -111,9 +113,9 @@ print_logs_exit()
     for ftype in data etrace error etrace_stderr; do
         printf '\n\n'
         bname="logger.$ftype.txt"
-        dlogi "Log $ftype BEG::"
+        dlogi "Log file $bname BEG::"
         cat "$LOG_ROOT/$bname" || true # we already checked these
-        dlogi "::END $ftype"
+        dlogi "::END log file $bname"
     done
     test -z "$errmsg" || dloge "$errmsg"
     exit "$exit_code"
@@ -132,6 +134,8 @@ main()
         if test -s "$stderr_file"; then
             print_logs_exit 1 "stderr $stderr_file is not empty"
         fi
+        printf 'GOOD: %s was empty, no stderr output from that sof-logger instance\n' \
+               logger."$f".txt > "$stderr_file"
     done
 
     # Search for the log header, should be something like this: