diff --git a/benchmarks/user/benchmark.py b/benchmarks/user/benchmark.py
index f737e870a3..420f18df02 100644
--- a/benchmarks/user/benchmark.py
+++ b/benchmarks/user/benchmark.py
@@ -407,7 +407,7 @@ def test(problem, **kwargs):
                     "DEVITO_MPI is unset. Setting `DEVITO_MPI=basic`..."
                     % MPI.COMM_WORLD.size)
             configuration['mpi'] = 'basic'
-    except TypeError:
+    except (TypeError, ModuleNotFoundError):
         # MPI not available
         pass
 
diff --git a/devito/arch/compiler.py b/devito/arch/compiler.py
index c51bd90daf..c85ec156f2 100644
--- a/devito/arch/compiler.py
+++ b/devito/arch/compiler.py
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
                         check_call, run)
 import platform
 import warnings
-import sys
 import time
 
 import numpy.ctypeslib as npct
@@ -18,7 +17,7 @@
                          IntelDevice, get_nvidia_cc, check_cuda_runtime,
                          get_m1_llvm_path)
 from devito.exceptions import CompilationError
-from devito.logger import debug, warning, error
+from devito.logger import debug, warning
 from devito.parameters import configuration
 from devito.tools import (as_list, change_directory, filter_ordered,
                           memoized_func, make_tempdir)
@@ -42,12 +41,11 @@ def sniff_compiler_version(cc, allow_fail=False):
             return Version("0")
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
         return Version("0")
-    except FileNotFoundError:
+    except OSError:
         if allow_fail:
             return Version("0")
         else:
-            error("The `%s` compiler isn't available on this system" % cc)
-            sys.exit(1)
+            raise RuntimeError("The `%s` compiler isn't available on this system" % cc)
 
     if ver.startswith("gcc"):
         compiler = "gcc"
diff --git a/devito/mpi/distributed.py b/devito/mpi/distributed.py
index b9efa0010f..b1b0d6de1a 100644
--- a/devito/mpi/distributed.py
+++ b/devito/mpi/distributed.py
@@ -42,13 +42,19 @@ def cleanup():
         if init_by_devito and MPI.Is_initialized() and not MPI.Is_finalized():
             MPI.Finalize()
     atexit.register(cleanup)
-except ImportError:
+except ImportError as e:
     # Dummy fallback in case mpi4py/MPI aren't available
     class NoneMetaclass(type):
         def __getattr__(self, name):
             return None
 
     class MPI(object, metaclass=NoneMetaclass):
+        init_error = e
+
+        @classmethod
+        def Init(cls):
+            raise cls.init_error
+
         @classmethod
         def Is_initialized(cls):
             return False
diff --git a/tests/test_arch.py b/tests/test_arch.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fd00bd70da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_arch.py
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+import pytest
+
+from devito.arch.compiler import sniff_compiler_version
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("cc", [
+    "doesn'texist",
+    "/root/doesn'texist",
+])
+def test_sniff_compiler_version(cc):
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match=cc):
+        sniff_compiler_version(cc)