diff --git a/components/freertos/test_apps/freertos/kernel/tasks/test_freertos_task_delete.c b/components/freertos/test_apps/freertos/kernel/tasks/test_freertos_task_delete.c
index 86714e982c..9509fb0da9 100644
--- a/components/freertos/test_apps/freertos/kernel/tasks/test_freertos_task_delete.c
+++ b/components/freertos/test_apps/freertos/kernel/tasks/test_freertos_task_delete.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023 Espressif Systems (Shanghai) CO LTD
+ * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2023-2025 Espressif Systems (Shanghai) CO LTD
  *
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
  */
@@ -130,7 +130,8 @@ TEST_CASE("FreeRTOS Delete Blocked Tasks", "[freertos]")
 
        (1000 iterations takes about 9 seconds on ESP32 dual core)
      */
-    for(unsigned iter = 0; iter < 1000; iter++) {
+    unsigned iter = 0;
+    for (iter = 0; iter < 1000; iter++) {
         // Create everything
         SemaphoreHandle_t sem = xSemaphoreCreateMutex();
         for(unsigned i = 0; i < portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1; i++) {
@@ -145,15 +146,25 @@ TEST_CASE("FreeRTOS Delete Blocked Tasks", "[freertos]")
 
         vTaskDelay(5); // Let the tasks juggle the mutex for a bit
 
-        for(unsigned i = 0; i < portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1; i++) {
+        for (unsigned i = 0; i < portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1; i++) {
+            vTaskSuspend(blocking_tasks[i]);
             vTaskDelete(blocking_tasks[i]);
             params[i].deleted = true;
         }
         vTaskDelay(4); // Yield to the idle task for cleanup
 
+        // As an experiment, until IDFCI-4988 is fixed (CI runner loses connection to the target)
+        // let's occasionally print a message to the console to ensure the test is running
+        // and keep the console active.
+        if (iter && iter % 100 == 0) {
+            // In each iteration, we create portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1 tasks
+            printf("Deleted %u blocked tasks\n", iter * (portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1));
+        }
+
         vSemaphoreDelete(sem);
 
         // Check we haven't leaked resources yet
         TEST_ASSERT_GREATER_OR_EQUAL(before - 256, heap_caps_get_free_size(MALLOC_CAP_8BIT));
     }
+    printf("Deleted %u blocked tasks\n", iter * (portNUM_PROCESSORS + 1));
 }