diff --git a/GPy/core/sparse_gp_mpi.py b/GPy/core/sparse_gp_mpi.py
index 7910cb71..f0465f38 100644
--- a/GPy/core/sparse_gp_mpi.py
+++ b/GPy/core/sparse_gp_mpi.py
@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ class SparseGP_MPI(SparseGP):
             del dc['N_range']
             del dc['N_list']
             del dc['Y_local']
+        if 'normalizer' not in dc:
+            dc['normalizer'] = None
+            dc['Y_normalized'] = dc['Y']
         return dc
 
     #=====================================================
diff --git a/GPy/util/debug.py b/GPy/util/debug.py
index a5796e80..cd4a0c2d 100644
--- a/GPy/util/debug.py
+++ b/GPy/util/debug.py
@@ -26,11 +26,14 @@ def checkFullRank(m, tol=1e-10, name=None, force_check=False):
         print 'The size of '+name+'is too big to check (>=10000)!'
         return True
     
-    s = np.linalg.eigvals(m)
+    s = np.real(np.linalg.eigvals(m))
     
     if s.min()/s.max()<tol:
         print name+' is close to singlar!'
         print 'The eigen values of '+name+' is '+str(s)
+        if m.mpi_comm is None or m.mpi_comm.rank==0:
+            import time
+            m.pickle('model_'+str(int(time.time()))+'.pickle')
         return False
     return True
     
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