diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 2e23dd9fc123aac511f1caa92d867a8be17c5020..59507b8d8fbf135891a1bda4d08d96b70f48d2f1 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -124,8 +124,6 @@ build-codec-sanitizers-linux:
 codec-smoke-test:
   extends: .test-job-linux-needs-testv-dir
   # temporarily restrict this job to the only runner which (so far) seems to runit without problems
-  tags:
-    - smoke-test
   timeout: "5 minutes"
   rules:
     - if: $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == 'merge_request_event'
diff --git a/scripts/pyivastest/IvasModeRunner.py b/scripts/pyivastest/IvasModeRunner.py
index 84616a93315e20ed6797282471d53f0a93950bdf..246e8139ad9775cba9766c92a59da42b81ec28fe 100755
--- a/scripts/pyivastest/IvasModeRunner.py
+++ b/scripts/pyivastest/IvasModeRunner.py
@@ -1578,34 +1578,35 @@ class IvasModeRunner(IvasModeCollector.IvasModeCollector):
                             executor.submit(self.ivas_enc_thread, mode, config)
                         )
                 while run_dec:
-
-                    self.lock.acquire()
-                    # check if all enc tasks are done, either regularily or with exceptions
-                    try:
-                        finished_enc_tasks = concurrent.futures.wait(
-                            tasks_enc, timeout=0.001
-                        )
-                        if len(finished_enc_tasks.not_done) == 0:
-                            self.dec_queue["all_encoded"] = True
-                    except concurrent.futures.TimeoutError:
-                        # not all done yet, continue...
-                        pass
-
-                    self.lock.release()
-
-                    self.dec_queue["condition"].acquire()
-                    if not self.dec_queue["dec_entries"]:
+                    with self.lock:
+                        # check if all enc tasks are done, either regularily or with exceptions
+                        try:
+                            finished_enc_tasks = concurrent.futures.wait(
+                                tasks_enc, timeout=0.001
+                            )
+                            if len(finished_enc_tasks.not_done) == 0:
+                                self.dec_queue["all_encoded"] = True
+                        except concurrent.futures.TimeoutError:
+                            # not all done yet, continue...
+                            pass
+
+                    with self.dec_queue["condition"]:
+                        dec_queue_empty = len(self.dec_queue["dec_entries"]) == 0
                         all_encoded = self.dec_queue["all_encoded"]
-                        if all_encoded:
+                        all_modes_done = self.stats["num_modes"] == self.stats["num_modes_finished"]
+
+                        if dec_queue_empty and all_encoded and all_modes_done:
+                            self.dec_queue["condition"].notify()
                             break
-                        self.dec_queue["condition"].wait(10)
+                        else:
+                            self.dec_queue["condition"].wait(1)
 
-                    while self.dec_queue["dec_entries"] != []:
-                        config = self.dec_queue["dec_entries"].pop(0)
-                        tasks_dec.append(executor.submit(self.ivas_dec_thread, config))
+                        # can not reuse dec_queue_empty here, since there might be new items after waiting
+                        while len(self.dec_queue["dec_entries"]) != 0:
+                            config = self.dec_queue["dec_entries"].pop(0)
+                            tasks_dec.append(executor.submit(self.ivas_dec_thread, config))
 
-                    self.dec_queue["condition"].notify()
-                    self.dec_queue["condition"].release()
+                        self.dec_queue["condition"].notify()
 
         self.show_final_stats()