diff --git a/Lib/test/test_xrange.py b/Lib/test/test_xrange.py
index f33373e36b93..9f9daa7bf88f 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_xrange.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_xrange.py
@@ -53,8 +53,13 @@ def test_xrange(self):
         self.assertRaises(OverflowError, xrange, -sys.maxint, sys.maxint)
         self.assertRaises(OverflowError, xrange, 0, 2*sys.maxint)
 
-        self.assertEqual(len(xrange(-sys.maxint, sys.maxint, 2)),
-                         sys.maxint)
+        r = xrange(-sys.maxint, sys.maxint, 2)
+        if sys.maxint > 0x7fffffff:
+            # XXX raising ValueError is less than ideal, but this can't
+            # be fixed until range_length() returns a long in rangeobject.c
+            self.assertRaises(ValueError, len, r)
+        else:
+            self.assertEqual(len(r), sys.maxint)
         self.assertRaises(OverflowError, xrange, -sys.maxint-1, sys.maxint, 2)
 
 def test_main():