There's nothing about it on the SD user message boards
Really? Where are you looking??
Here is one on the forum about possibly using it for a BBQ at the end of the day
Another one here in the same forum about possibly using the SSD to try and get around the heat problem
These two links go to the same post.
The thread ends with SD founder Jon Tatooles stating definitively "We haven't seen a unit fail specifically because of it getting too hot." Nobody disagrees, and the thread ends with the original complaint going to tech support, with the line "When an error occurs, it will occur when the recorder is powered on and therefor the recorder will be warm when the error occurs. This fact alone isn't enough to verify that the error was caused by the recorder's temperature."
The OP never wrote back to reaffirm that it was temperature that caused his problems, so I suspect it wasn't (although of course I don't know for sure).
Also in the same thread are a number of people saying they use their recorders in 40C+ temperatures for long periods of time without issue.
And yet another in the forum on the SD site about heat problems
Looks to me like the OP's problem had nothing to do with heat:
"Currently there is no indication that the battery is charging while the unit is on.
That will be changed in an upcoming firmware update."
but there was still some heat-related news in that thread:
"I´ve learned from my dealer today that units beyond (newer) serial HP0508246004 have a new mic-pre board installed that radiates less heat. They told me since this revision they haven´t had any heat-related issues with their rental machines. The 788T still gets very hot but they claim it´s not a problem to use bags without ventilation." (March, 2005)
And
"788T recorders manufactured before September 8, 2008 are eligible for a no-charge hardware update." (May, 2009)
Here is an article in the Sound Device support section about the heat problems
This just explains that the body of the unit
is its heat sink and is therefore designed to get hot. The heat is radiated from the internals (esp. the mic pres) by direct thermal bonding to the aluminum cover plates. Aluminum, as anyone who's cooked or grilled with foil should know, radiates heat extremely efficiently and cools very, very fast. There is no mention of a problem or loss of functionality or failure.
So what I've found is that the units get hot, and that freaks some people out, but that the company doesn't consider it a problem and has heard of no failures as a result of heat, but that it upgraded the hardware and will bring older units up to date for free
anyway.
So the above links include exactly
one report of decreased functionality due to heat, which ended somewhat inconclusively but with the distinct likelihood that the problem may not have been heat related, and the user never posted an update. Among the thousands of units being operated every day in bags and all sorts of extreme and demanding locations (Antarctica? Check. Gold mines of South Africa? Check. Mt. Everest? Check. Hardcore punk clubs in Seoul and Tokyo? Check. The White House? Check. My bathroom? Check.), that is a pretty impressive track record.
Meanwhile, Nagra doesn't seem to have a user forum, so there doesn't appear to be any way to identify if its users have had any problems with their machines. AFAIK, of course--correct me if I'm wrong.
I guess SD's probably foolish to make that kind of thing public. Or confident.
So, yeah. That's all I found. It seems most of the "problems" are from people alarmed at the way the machine cools itself, a side effect of which is that its body gets hot. So I guess it's a genuine "problem" for those among us who
really can't stand being near hot things, but as the delicious cup of coffee next to my mouse hand suggests, I'm not one of those people.
Of course, if I'm missing anything important, please let me know. That's always possible at my age.