>>Hola Grupo!
>>
>> Tengo una pequeña aplicación que dependiendo del día y la hora suena un timbre en una escuela, pero si minimizo la aplicación ya no suena.
>>
>> Como puedo solucionar esto?
>>
>> Esta hecho en W98 SE, VFP 7.0, tiene un control timer, uso mscomm32.ocx para conectar el puerto serial y el timbre, el vfp-skin 2.0., entre otras cosas.
>>
>> Gracias de antemano por cualquier ayuda.
>>
>>Saludos cordiales, Javier
>
>Javier creo que tu pregunta tiene mas prospectos de recibir respuesta si usas la seccion de espanol.
>
>Following is a translation of Javier's post:
>
>[translation begins]
>I have a small application that rings a school bell depending on the day and hour, but if I minimize the application the bell is not rung.
>
>How can I resolve this?
>
>This is done in W98SE, VFP7. It has a control timer and uses mscomm32.ocx to connect the bell to the serial port. I also use vfp-skin 2.0., among other things.
>
>TIA for any help.
>[translation ends]

Sorry, I know English only...

- Go into the computer's BIOS and check the Power Saving features. In some cases, if they are turned on the power to the serial port will be turned off after a certain period of inactivity. Try disabling any power saving features if they are currently enabled.

- Simplify the computer. Try running as few other programs or utilities as possible while running the VFP application.

- Simplify the VFP app. Remove anything not strictly necessary (like VFP-Skin).

- I looked for a W98 setting that would "suspend tasks while minimized (or background)" but could find no references to any. There are some DOS-related settings for this but they would not apply to VFP.

- This is a real long shot, but I had one client with DOS programs being suspended while minimized, which was eventually traced to a Logitech mouse using the Logitech MouseWare 8.02 driver. When upgraded to 9.0 (or higher) the problem went away.

Good luck!