diff --git a/src/signaler.cpp b/src/signaler.cpp
index 4b13329b..cc6c1a63 100644
--- a/src/signaler.cpp
+++ b/src/signaler.cpp
@@ -474,7 +474,7 @@ int zmq::signaler_t::make_fdpair (fd_t *r_, fd_t *w_)
     int rc = socketpair (AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0, sv);
     if (rc == -1) {
         errno_assert (errno == ENFILE || errno == EMFILE);
-        sv [0] = sv [1] = -1;
+        *w_ = *r_ = -1;
         return -1;
     }
     else {
diff --git a/tests/test_many_sockets.cpp b/tests/test_many_sockets.cpp
index d7d85d7e..c910eb38 100644
--- a/tests/test_many_sockets.cpp
+++ b/tests/test_many_sockets.cpp
@@ -22,13 +22,14 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 
-const int no_of_sockets = 5000;
+const int no_of_sockets = 2 * 65536;
 
 int main(void)
 {
     setup_test_environment();
 
     void *ctx = zmq_ctx_new();
+    zmq_ctx_set(ctx, ZMQ_MAX_SOCKETS, no_of_sockets);
     void *sockets[no_of_sockets];
     
     int sockets_created = 0;