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Important thingies about Empty4
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Author:  SteveHopwood [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:28 am ]
Post subject:  Important thingies about Empty4
Some of you may wonder why I bother putting a time display at the top of my EA's. I do this so we can make a quick check that they are still running.

For some time now, the ea's have been stopping on the always-on lappy in the music roomn, that hosts my trading platforms. The lappy is elderly and ludicrously under-strength compared to modern machines, but it had no trouble running up to 10 demo account in the past.

I was finding time and again that the platform was freezing, and it would take Task Manager (Windows xp) several attempts to close them. They would often freeze instantly on reloading; sometimes the only way to get the platform restarted was to delete the robot it was hosting and start again.

I gave up trying to run my TIB and Joe demos last week; then damn platforms simply would not run. I could not see how the code in my bots was causing such trouble, but assumed it was the bots.

Over in scoobs' Forex Robot thread and before he let us have the source code, we discovered his robot would only run if we updated our platforms to the latest 4.9. I had not updated my coding Alpari UK demo for ages, so I did this. Scoobs' bot instantly ran happily.

And the platform started crashing whenever it felt bored or wanted some tlc. It turns out that those stupid sods at Metaquotes have released the most unstable, bug-infested piece of infantile crap yet. An achievement of major note, I suggest.

It turns out my demo platforms were freezing because I always allowed Live Update when starting a fresh one, so I was always running 4.9.

So, the purpose of this thread is twofold:
  • 1) To warn the unsuspecting never to allow Live Update to run. Apart from anything else, Empty4 has been around for a long time. Even the pathetic children who programme it have had time to find all the bugs, so there is no need to keep up this blizzard of updates.
    2) To allow us to share previous versions of Empty4 setup files that allow us to run moderately stable platforms.
Empty4 setup files are too large to upload here, so they need uploading to a file-hosting site and then linking here. If you could all do that with your stable versions and post the links here, I will add the link to this post.

Here is my setup for Cowboy IBFX Aussie V229 - apparently one of the most stable:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1313k0e3534txmh

:D
Author:  AnotherBrian [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
Hi Steve;

I have read somewhere that platform with lots of EA's loaded might have a startup issue. I had platforms freezing up as well (BTW - none were running your code, so its nothing to do with that) but when the Empty4 app started, I quickly disabled the EA's with the large button on the top of the menu. I let the charts update, then after about a minute I enabled the expert advisors again. This worked for me. I had 2 platforms running about 10 EA's each on a P4 desktop (XP), no sweat for the platform once it was all running.

For the life of me I can't figure out why Empty4 took off when their are other much better platforms, maybe its the cost?
Author:  guandi [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
hello,
we do not need the entire setup file, we only need Terminal.exe. i just replace the Terminal.exe to get whatever build i need.

best regards.
Author:  Alpenkorps [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
I have a habit for keeping things updated, so I always update my Empty4 whenever a new built is available. As usual, I have updated all of my Empty4 and I am yet to find any problem. I do keep my lappy 24/7 running and also forward testing a few EA's. I'll let you guys know if I get any trouble.

Thanks Steve for the heads up.
Author:  SteveHopwood [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
guandi wrote:hello,
we do not need the entire setup file, we only need Terminal.exe. i just replace the Terminal.exe to get whatever build i need.

best regards.
I thought so, so I tried this and it didn't work. Must have been something I did, so I will do a live update and try again.

Cheers

:D
Author:  scheinwerfer [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 5:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
I live by the motto "don't fix it if it ain't broken", but a few months back all my MT's failed to log in, the error was invalid version or something similar. Mind you, I hadn't updated them for nearly 3 years! Can't run forever from those updates I guess.
Author:  Caal [ Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
Just a useful note for everyone here dealing with crashing Empty4 instances.

I personally have NEVER experienced this issue. Even with over 100 instances open (on Windows 2008 R2). On Windows 7 and Windows 2003 I also haven't had issues...BUT, some people asked me about alternatives to AlwaysUp and such (commercial software for this)

So I put together a script that will wrap the Empty4 instance in a protective shell and relaunch it when it crashes, very simple, and don't worry, it's not a virus, you can see the source code ;-)

***PLEASE TEST BEFORE U USE IT, I DID NOT TEST IT VERY THOROUGHLY***

Instructions:

save the attached file as a .vbs file instead of a .txt file. Open it, and change the values for the applicationpath and email settings, then give it a try! Let me know if it doesn't work and I will fix it ;-)

NOTE: this wrapper will also restart your Empty4 instance if you close it manually, that's why there is a MaxRestarts parameter so you don't drive yourself crazy closing it. You can also use taskmanager to close wscript.exe if this happens.

Versions:

With email (mailserver required!):
appautorestartwrapper.txt
Without email (no mailserver required):
appautorestartwrapper_no_email.txt
Author:  Vokin [ Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
OR check this toy:
http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/M ... index.html
It is Process Timer, helped me with MT in busy times (news etc...) with priority seting Above Normal - NOT set too high, it is dangerous!! Toy not for newbies...
Author:  Xfinity [ Thu Dec 22, 2011 9:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
Is build 228 stable? Because I cannot find Metaquotes build 229 anywhere and I couldn't get my criminal to work on the version Steve posted in 1st post. So, if anyone has it. Please post it or a link where I can download it. Thanks in advance!
Author:  SteveHopwood [ Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Important thingies about Empty4
Xfinity wrote:Is build 228 stable? Because I cannot find Metaquotes build 229 anywhere and I couldn't get my criminal to work on the version Steve posted in 1st post. So, if anyone has it. Please post it or a link where I can download it. Thanks in advance!
Perfect oppo to test out guandi's assertion that all we need to do is copy the relevant terminal over the top of the installed one.

The attached zip contains the V229 that I am using to run scoobs' Forex Robot. Please let us know if copying the .exe file over your existing terminal works ok.

Cheers

:D
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