How to Catch VPS Crashes Automatically (Before They Cost You Money) 💔
Imagine waking up and seeing no new trades for the last 6 hours. Your EA didn’t fail — your VPS silently froze. This happens more often than traders expect, and it usually becomes visible only after a missed opportunity or avoidable drawdown.
Disclosure: I am the author of the monitoring EA EquityTracker MT5. This article explains how VPS crash detection works in general, and only later shows how an EA like EquityTracker MT5 can make it easier.
The good news: you can detect MT5 and VPS crashes automatically long before they become expensive. This guide explains why crashes happen, how heartbeat monitoring works, and how to build a reliable MT5 crash-detection system.
Who This Guide Is For
- Traders running EAs 24/7 on a VPS
- Prop firm traders who must avoid downtime violations
- Anyone running multiple MT5 terminals or accounts
- Anyone who wants fast and reliable EA uptime monitoring
Common Symptoms of a VPS Crash
- No new trades on the account for an unusual amount of time
- MT5 Journal and Experts logs stop updating
- No alerts from your EA
- Equity curve becomes flat
- Remote desktop feels slow or unresponsive
Why VPS and MT5 Crashes Happen
Figure 1 – Typical technical reasons why VPS and MT5 can fail.
Even high-quality VPS providers experience occasional interruptions. Typical causes include:
- VPS Overload: Oversold shared servers cause slow performance or freezes.
- High Memory / CPU Usage: Heavy indicators, tick charts or large logs can freeze MT5.
- Network Interruptions: ISP problems, datacenter outages, routing issues.
- Windows Updates / Forced Restarts: Sudden reboots on cheap VPS plans.
- Terminal Freezes: Often caused by scripts, indicators or backtests left open.
Since MT5 provides no built-in crash alerts, most traders only notice the issue hours later.
The Most Reliable Solution: External Monitoring
The most effective way to detect MT5 or VPS failure is by sending a periodic heartbeat to an external system. When the heartbeat stops, an alert is triggered.
- Your EA sends a message every X minutes (“I’m alive”).
- If MT5 freezes or the VPS crashes, heartbeats stop.
- You instantly receive an alert on Telegram, Discord, email, or dashboard.
Figure 2 – Heartbeat flow: MT5 → external monitor → Telegram/Discord/email alerts.
This method works with any broker or VPS and is the most robust way to monitor MT5 uptime.
Methods to Monitor VPS Health
For the best protection, combine two or more of the methods below. All of them are based on the same core idea: detect when MT5 stops talking to the outside world.
1. EA Heartbeat to an External Monitor (Then to Telegram/Discord)
First, you configure an external uptime service (such as HealthChecks.io or UptimeRobot). Then you program your EA to send a small “I’m alive” signal to that service at fixed intervals. Finally, you let the service forward alerts to your preferred channels.
Typical alert channels include:
- Telegram bots or private channels
- Discord servers (for teams or communities)
- Email, SMS, or mobile push notifications
In practice, this works like a heartbeat monitor: as long as MT5 is running, the external service sees regular pings. If the heartbeat stops, it sends a notification to Telegram, Discord, or any other channel you configured.
Recommended interval: 5 minutes for fast detection, 10 minutes for low-frequency setups.
Minimal Heartbeat Code Example (MQL5)
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
//| Simple heartbeat example |
//+------------------------------------------------------------------+
int OnInit()
{
EventSetTimer(300); // 300 seconds = 5 minutes
return(INIT_SUCCEEDED);
}
void OnTimer()
{
string url = "https://hc-ping.com/YOUR-CHECK-ID";
char result[];
string headers;
// Send the GET request to the external monitoring service
int status = WebRequest("GET", url, "", 5000, NULL, 0, result, headers);
Print("Heartbeat sent, status = ", status);
}
Remember to allow WebRequest for https://hc-ping.com in MT5:
- Tools → Options → Expert Advisors
- Enable “Allow WebRequest for listed URL”
- Add your uptime service domain
Figure 3 – Example of a periodic heartbeat notification message from Equity Tracker MT5.
2. External Ping Services (UptimeRobot / HealthChecks.io)
External ping services are the backbone of a good crash-detection setup. They sit outside your VPS and continuously check that your EA is still sending heartbeats.
- Very fast detection: You choose the maximum delay before an alert.
- Independent from your VPS: Works even if the VPS completely loses power.
- Flexible notifications: Supports email, SMS, Telegram, Discord, and more.
Once configured, you rarely need to touch them again. They quietly watch your EA 24/7 and notify you only when something is wrong.
3. “EA Stopped” Alerts from Inside MT5
“EA stopped” alerts are useful for clean shutdowns, such as when MT5 is closed manually or the EA is removed from the chart by mistake.
In Equity Tracker MT5 you can enable the option to be notified:
- Notify when the EA stops → true
Figure 4 – Example of an “EA stopped” alert sent to Telegram (by EquityTracker MT5).
These alerts do not detect sudden freezes or hard crashes, but they add a valuable secondary safety layer: if someone shuts down your MT5 or removes the EA, you will know.
What Not to Rely On
- VPS dashboards – VPS may appear online even when MT5 is frozen.
- MT5 push notifications – they work only while MT5 is operational.
- Manual monitoring – slow and unreliable.
Best Practices for Reliable Crash Detection
- Use redundancy: Combine Telegram/Discord alerts with an external ping service.
- Use short heartbeat intervals: 5 minutes for fast detection, 10 minutes minimum.
- Reduce MT5 load: Charts → Max bars in chart → set to 5,000 or less.
- Close unused charts: Free RAM and CPU for stability.
- Enable drawdown & margin alerts: Prevent catastrophic EA behavior.
How to Test Your Crash-Detection Setup
- Set your heartbeat interval to 1 minute temporarily.
- Restart or close MT5 on your VPS.
- Confirm the alert arrives within the expected time.
- Re-open MT5 and verify that heartbeat alerts resume.
Troubleshooting
- Heartbeat not arriving → WebRequest URL not added to MT5.
- Ping service not triggering → Wrong URL or wrong timer interval.
- No Telegram alerts → Bot token or chat ID has an error.
- EA removed on restart → Auto-load is disabled in MT5 terminal settings.
- VPS still freezes → Reduce charts, remove heavy indicators.
Automated Heartbeat Monitoring with Equity Tracker MT5
Figure 5 – Equity Tracker MT5 dashboard with uptime and risk-monitoring features.
Equity Tracker MT5 centralizes all these protections in a simple monitoring tool:
- Telegram & Discord heartbeat alerts
- External ping support (UptimeRobot, HealthChecks.io)
- Drawdown & margin alerts
- Automated profit & account-status reports
Attach the EA to one chart and it monitors your entire MT5 account.
Disclaimer: This EA is sold by the author of this article on the MQL5 Market.
Conclusion
You cannot prevent every VPS or MT5 crash, but you can prevent them from becoming expensive. With heartbeats, external uptime checks, and redundant alert channels, you will know within minutes when your VPS stops working.
Set up heartbeats → Enable external pings → Trade with confidence.
Your automated trading environment becomes safer, more reliable, and protected 24/7.
