Ok, I think I understand your problem now. You can use a Future to try to do something and then timeout after a bit if nothing has happened.
E.g.:
FutureTask<Void> task = new FutureTask<Void>(new Callable<Void>() {
@Override
public Void call() throws Exception {
// Do DB stuff
return null;
}
});
Executor executor = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();
executor.execute(task);
try {
task.get(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
}
catch(Exception ex) {
// Handle your exception
}