Opening unknown file in ido mode causes loooong search

[gamename]

I've just updated to 23.1.50.  I have "ido-mode" turned on.  Ido mode
is great most of the time.  I can do C-x C-f to open a file, and if
the file doesn't exist in the current dir, ido will find it in my
history.  Really cool

But, sometimes when I try to open a file that I've somehow misspelled,
I get "Searching for <filename>" in the minibuffer and emacs freezes.
After about 2-3 mins (due to a timeout value somewhere I suppose),
emacs unfreezes and I can continue.

Anyone know how to avoid this, or somehow set the timeout to a
reasonable value?

Tks,
-T