@@ -1017,11 +1017,10 @@
 	 (non-completed           (filter (lambda (x)             ;; remove hed from not completed list, duh, of course it is not completed!
 					    (not (equal? x hed)))
 					  (runs:calc-not-completed prereqs-not-met)))
 	 (loop-list               (list hed tal reg reruns))
 	 ;; configure the load runner
-	 (numcpus                 (common:get-num-cpus #f))
 	 (maxload                 (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "maxload") "3.0")))         ;; use a non-number string to disable
          (maxhomehostload         (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "maxhomehostload") "2.0"))) ;; use a non-number string to disable
          (waitdelay               (string->number (or (configf:lookup *configdat* "jobtools" "waitdelay") "60"))))
     (debug:print-info 4 *default-log-port* "have-resources: " have-resources " prereqs-not-met: (" 
 		      (string-intersperse 
@@ -1119,14 +1118,19 @@
 		    (not (member 'exclusive testmode)))))
       ;; (hash-table-delete! *max-tries-hash* (db:test-make-full-name test-name item-path))
       ;; we are going to reset all the counters for test retries by setting a new hash table
       ;; this means they will increment only when nothing can be run
       (set! *max-tries-hash* (make-hash-table))
+      
       ;; well, first lets see if cpu load throttling is enabled. If so wait around until the
       ;; average cpu load is under the threshold before continuing
-      (if maxload ;; only gate if maxload is specified
-          (common:wait-for-cpuload maxload numcpus waitdelay))
+
+      ;; jobtools maxload is useful for where the full Megatest run is done on one machine
+      (if maxload ;; only gate if maxload is specified, NOTE: maxload is normalized, i.e. load=1 means all cpus fully utilized
+          (common:wait-for-normalized-load maxload "Waiting for load to drop before starting more tests" #f))
+
+      ;; jobtools maxhomehostload is intended to prevent overloading on the homehost which can cause database corruption issues
       (if maxhomehostload
           (common:wait-for-homehost-load maxhomehostload (conc "Waiting for homehost load to drop below normalized value of " maxhomehostload)))
       
       (run:test run-id run-info keyvals runname test-record flags #f test-registry all-tests-registry)
       (runs:incremental-print-results run-id)