Querying stopped service returns an empty feature set instead of throwing an exception

[MahshavaMahshava]

When querying a ArcGIS Server Manager's service in a stopped status using C# QueryTask my expectation is that an exception will be thrown stating that the service is either down or does not exists, so that I'll know that the service is down which is an invalid state.

What actually happens is that I get as a return value, an empty Feature Set.

I query the service using REST API, so even if I change the URL to query an unexisting service like "ThisDoesNotExist" I still get an empty feature set.

Is there a way to configure the ArcGIS Server Manager that it will throw exception in such case instead of return an empty feature set.

*I am using ArcGIS Server Manager version 10.0

[EhabEl-Masry]

I guess u will have to add another condition before querying the service: to query the running services on the arcgis server instance you are consuming.