When you added the nheqminer, did you add it via the Options dialog, Managed Software section, and configured it with Command Line as compatibility mode? In that case Awesome Miner shouldn't try the API and should understand that it cannot get hashrate/share information.
Yes, I added nheqminer in compatibility mode (EWBF CUDA Zcash Miner) and added additional command line arguments in profit profile properties:
-v -l mine.zergpool.com:3300 -u BTCaddress -t 7 -a 4029 -p c=BTC,ID=NAME