Mind you, I know next to nothing about coding, but wouldn't it be possible to use the miner to check for life? Let's say you're mining with miner A, and you want to check if service B is alive. You then start miner B, and if it gets a block or other sign of life, you close miner A and let miner B do it's thing. If it doesn't get a sign of life, you close miner B and let miner A continue.