ADO components:
I would give a try to the asynchronous data fetch. When you'd execute the query, you'll remember when you've started and every time the OnFetchProgress event fires, you'll check if the EventStatus is still in esOK state and check the time elapsed from the query execution. If it elapsed, you might cancel data fetch by using the Cancel method on your dataset.
I meant to use something like the following (untested) pseudocode:
var
FQueryStart: DWORD;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
// configure the asynchronous data fetch for dataset
ADOQuery1.ExecuteOptions := [eoAsyncExecute, eoAsyncFetchNonBlocking];
end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
// store the query execution starting time and execute a query
FQueryStart := GetTickCount;
ADOQuery1.SQL.Text := 'SELECT * FROM Table';
ADOQuery1.Open;
end;
procedure TForm1.ADOQuery1FetchProgress(DataSet: TCustomADODataSet; Progress,
MaxProgress: Integer; var EventStatus: TEventStatus);
begin
// if the fetch progress is in esOK (adStatusOK) status and the time since
// the query has been executed (5000 ms) elapsed, cancel the query
if (EventStatus = esOK) and (GetTickCount - FQueryStart >= 5000) then
DataSet.Cancel;
end;