diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.cpp
index 0a52165dcf6..b93e70a0353 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.cpp
@@ -349,6 +349,7 @@ void Thread::record_stack_base_and_size() {
   // If possible, refrain from doing anything which may crash or assert since
   // quite probably those crash dumps will be useless.
   set_stack_base(os::current_stack_base());
+  assert(_stack_base != NULL, "current_stack_base failed for %s", name());
   set_stack_size(os::current_stack_size());
 
 #ifdef SOLARIS
diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.hpp b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.hpp
index 9bcaa5ba9d0..5629db77a42 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.hpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/runtime/thread.hpp
@@ -748,7 +748,7 @@ protected:
 
  public:
   // Stack overflow support
-  address stack_base() const           { assert(_stack_base != NULL,"Sanity check"); return _stack_base; }
+  address stack_base() const           { assert(_stack_base != NULL,"Sanity check failed for %s", name()); return _stack_base; }
   void    set_stack_base(address base) { _stack_base = base; }
   size_t  stack_size() const           { return _stack_size; }
   void    set_stack_size(size_t size)  { _stack_size = size; }