diff --git a/lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterExceptions.java b/lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterExceptions.java
index 04bc77a94e8..403b53b04ba 100644
--- a/lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterExceptions.java
+++ b/lucene/src/test/org/apache/lucene/index/TestIndexWriterExceptions.java
@@ -695,12 +695,12 @@ public class TestIndexWriterExceptions extends LuceneTestCase {
       MockDirectoryWrapper dir = newDirectory();
 
       {
-        final  IndexWriter writer = new IndexWriter(
-            dir,
-            newIndexWriterConfig(TEST_VERSION_CURRENT, analyzer).
-                setMaxBufferedDocs(-1).
-                setMergePolicy(newLogMergePolicy(10))
-        );
+        final IndexWriter writer = new IndexWriter(dir, newIndexWriterConfig(
+            TEST_VERSION_CURRENT, analyzer).setMaxBufferedDocs(-1)
+            .setMergePolicy(
+                random.nextBoolean() ? NoMergePolicy.COMPOUND_FILES
+                    : NoMergePolicy.NO_COMPOUND_FILES));
+        // don't use a merge policy here they depend on the DWPThreadPool and its max thread states etc.
         final int finalI = i;
 
         Thread[] threads = new Thread[NUM_THREAD];