diff --git a/lua/entities/gmod_wire_expression2/base/preprocessor.lua b/lua/entities/gmod_wire_expression2/base/preprocessor.lua
index 3808c553f2..ca95b7e55b 100644
--- a/lua/entities/gmod_wire_expression2/base/preprocessor.lua
+++ b/lua/entities/gmod_wire_expression2/base/preprocessor.lua
@@ -403,27 +403,26 @@ function PreProcessor:Process(buffer, directives, ent)
 		self.ignorestuff = true
 	end
 
-	-- to avoid hangs
-	local start_time = SysTime()
+	-- to avoid big hangs, 2 regex changed from 500 to 10000 to avoid false positives
+	local regex_limits = {[0] = 50000000, 15000, 10000, 150, 70, 40}
+	local timeout = SysTime() + 0.5
 
 	for i, line in ipairs(lines) do
 		self.readline = i
 
-		-- 2 regex changed from 500 to 10000, to avoid hangs
-		local ok = pcall(function() WireLib.CheckRegex(line, "^(.-)%s*$", {[0] = 50000000, 15000, 10000, 150, 70, 40}) end)
+		local ok = pcall(function() WireLib.CheckRegex(line, "^(.-)%s*$", regex_limits) end)
 		if not ok then self:Error("Line strip regex is too complex!") goto cont end
 
-		if SysTime() > start_time + 0.1 then
-			self:Error("Preprocessing take too long!")
-			break
-		end
-
 		line = string.TrimRight(line)
 		line = self:RemoveComments(line)
 		line = self:ParseDirectives(line)
-
 		lines[i] = line
 		::cont::
+
+		if SysTime() > timeout then
+			self:Error("Preprocessing took too long!")
+			break
+		end
 	end
 
 	-- convert description lookup table into an array that WireLib understands