I could see two possible problems,

controlling the behavior ( which we are interested ) with a variable which is certainly not in context for the segments of the program, in such a case there is no need for the threads to branch out ( obey ) execution based on the value of the boolean variables

another thing that I could smell is, the possibility of mutual lock ( am guessing it ) where it just runs fine for a instant ' t ' units of time after that gets into the mutual lock condition.

Is the behavior of working fine for few minutes and receiving no updates a constant behavior ? I mean is it happening at 'nth' instant of time each time? If so, my assumption might be wrong - else there is a possibility

One more question, ( sorry if its silly ) do you check/validate the creation of threads ? Since its running in an infinite loop, conditions might go wrong and outbursting with the maximum number of threads that can be created.