diff --git a/src/PosixTask.cpp b/src/PosixTask.cpp
index bf7355166..f7629169c 100644
--- a/src/PosixTask.cpp
+++ b/src/PosixTask.cpp
@@ -167,6 +167,7 @@ void PosixTask::consumeMsg()
     
     while (remainingLengthInStream > 0)
     {
+        cout << "ERROR: eating data" << endl;
         err = ::recv(sock, buf, min(remainingLengthInStream, 1024), 0);
         if (err <= 0) {
             remainingLengthInStream = 0;
diff --git a/src/SessionManager.cpp b/src/SessionManager.cpp
index a3ad05503..e4c0da1b5 100644
--- a/src/SessionManager.cpp
+++ b/src/SessionManager.cpp
@@ -211,6 +211,9 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                     uint remainingBytes = 0;
                     uint endOfData, i;
                     int peakLength,len;
+                    struct timespec ts;
+                    ts.tv_sec = 0;
+                    ts.tv_nsec = 100000000;   // .1 sec
                     while(true)
                     {
                         peakLength = ::recv(fds[socketIncr].fd, &recv_buffer[remainingBytes], sizeof(recv_buffer)-remainingBytes, MSG_PEEK | MSG_DONTWAIT);
@@ -220,16 +223,20 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                             {
                                 perror("recv() failed");
                                 closeConn = true;
+                                break;
                             }
-                            break;
+                            // let's not saturate the system
+                            nanosleep(&ts, NULL);
+                            continue;
                         }
                         //cout << "recv got " << peakLength << " bytes" << endl;
                         endOfData = remainingBytes + peakLength;
                         if (endOfData < 8)
                         {
                             //read this snippet and keep going
-                            remainingBytes = endOfData;
                             len = ::read(fds[socketIncr].fd, &recv_buffer[remainingBytes], peakLength);
+                            remainingBytes = endOfData;
+                            assert(len == peakLength);
                             continue;
                         }
 
@@ -243,7 +250,6 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                                 recvMsgLength = *((uint *) &recv_buffer[i+4]);
                                 //cout << "got length = " << recvMsgLength << endl;
                                 recvMsgStart = i+8;
-                                remainingBytes = 0;
                                 //printf("  recvMsgLength %d recvMsgStart %d endofData %d\n", recvMsgLength,recvMsgStart,endOfData);
                                 // if >= endOfData then the start of the message data is the beginning of next message
                                 if (recvMsgStart >= endOfData)
@@ -257,10 +263,11 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                         {
                             printf("No SM_MSG_START\n");
                             len = ::read(fds[socketIncr].fd, &recv_buffer[remainingBytes], peakLength);
+                            assert(len == peakLength);
                             // we know the msg header isn't in position [0, endOfData - i), so throw that out
                             // and copy [i, endOfData) to the front of the buffer to be
                             // checked by the next iteration.
-                            memmove(recv_buffer, &recv_buffer[i], endOfData - i);
+                            memcpy(recv_buffer, &recv_buffer[i], endOfData - i);
                             remainingBytes = endOfData - i;
                         }
                         else
@@ -270,7 +277,11 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                             if (recvMsgStart > 0)
                             {
                                 //printf("SM_MSG_START data is here\n");
-                                len = ::read(fds[socketIncr].fd, &recv_buffer[remainingBytes], recvMsgStart);
+                                // how many to consume here...
+                                // recvMsgStart is the position in the buffer
+                                // peakLength is the amount peeked this time
+                                // remainingBytes is the amount carried over from previous reads
+                                len = ::read(fds[socketIncr].fd, &recv_buffer[remainingBytes], recvMsgStart - remainingBytes);
                             }
                             else
                             {
@@ -281,8 +292,6 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                             fds[socketIncr].events = 0;
                             //Pass the socket to CRP and the message length. next read will be start of message
                             crp->processRequest(fds[socketIncr].fd,recvMsgLength);
-                            recvMsgLength = 0;
-                            remainingBytes = 0;
                             
                             /*
                             //Doing this to work with cloudio_component_test
@@ -292,8 +301,8 @@ int SessionManager::start()
                             uint32_t response[4] = { storagemanager::SM_MSG_START, 8, (uint32_t ) -1, EINVAL };
                             len = ::send(fds[socketIncr].fd, response, 16, 0);
                             */
+                            break;
                         }
-                        break;
                     }
 
                     if (closeConn)
diff --git a/src/StatTask.cpp b/src/StatTask.cpp
index 7102be3ab..6933b5b74 100644
--- a/src/StatTask.cpp
+++ b/src/StatTask.cpp
@@ -47,16 +47,18 @@ bool StatTask::run()
     #endif
     
     int err = ioc->stat(cmd->filename, (struct stat *) resp->payload);
-    if (err)
-    {
-        handleError("StatTask stat", errno);
-        return true;
-    }
 
     resp->type = SM_MSG_START;
-    resp->payloadLen = sizeof(struct stat) + 4;
-    resp->returnCode = 0;
-    success = write(buf, sizeof(*resp) + sizeof(struct stat));
+    resp->returnCode = err;
+    if (!err) {
+        resp->payloadLen = sizeof(struct stat) + 4;
+        success = write(buf, sizeof(*resp) + sizeof(struct stat));
+    }
+    else {
+        resp->payloadLen = 8;
+        *((int32_t *) resp->payload) = errno;
+        success = write(buf, SM_HEADER_LEN + resp->payloadLen);
+    }
     return success;
 }