diff --git a/activerecord/CHANGELOG b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
index 07e34ebbb10bbbc0a823046a862ce3840a0f7677..1c09b4e6dcaf6988b5472a97267197f3df0e3ba0 100644
--- a/activerecord/CHANGELOG
+++ b/activerecord/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 *SVN*
 
+* Added better error message for "packets out of order" #1630 [courtenay]
+
 * Fixed first run of "rake migrate" on PostgreSQL by not expecting a return value on the id #1640
 
 
diff --git a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb
index 017e1ba5a5c3563d1d488f0cd259be8ccbb28c20..71329705b7d17e2cf14907dc54f6cecac4dfcc53 100755
--- a/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb
+++ b/activerecord/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/mysql_adapter.rb
@@ -129,6 +129,8 @@ def execute(sql, name = nil, retries = 2)
             @logger.info "Retrying invalid statement with reopened connection"
             log(sql, name) { @connection.query(sql) }
           end
+        elsif exception.message.split(":").first =~ /Packets out of order/
+          raise ActiveRecord::StatementInvalid, "'Packets out of order' error was received from the database. Please update your mysql bindings (gem update mysql) and read http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/password-hashing.html for more information."
         else
           raise
         end