On hot summer gigs it is not always easy to create some shade for all our precious hardware. Therefor I am happy that I have this laptop cooler stand (Cooler Master NotePal ErgoStand III). Luckily, until now I never had any hardware failures due to overheating.
Has anyone ever experienced hardware failures due to overheating? Any other tips & tricks to prevent such failures?
Photo from this weekend, Breskens / Netherlands, temperatures over 30 °C.
use an umbrella
or
turn of the sun
During sound check for my last gig I draped a white sheet over my laptop and keys, making sure the sheet didn’t actually make contact with the hardware by using a mic stand to make a tent.
It looked rediculous but much better than having thermal shutdown. We were in direct sun, over 95 degrees F on stage. I was hiding under it myself!
By show time the sun had moved and we were shaded by the stage roof and had a very lovely evening.
A small white or light colored umbrella you coudl fix to a stand would be more elegant.
As long as there’s little or no wind. I live on the coast, and the “breeze” is regularly strong enough that I can’t put my laundry out on the balcony to dry. An umbrella and stand is just something else to load in and out. A white sheet sounds like a good idea. Folds up fairly small and can be large enough so that you can tuck the corners in somewhere to hold it in place. How about an electric fan? Or a manual one, if you have a groupie to spare? 
Nice setup! What virtual instruments do you use?
A big fan (or groupie) would be nice indeed!
What I use the most is Pianoteq 7, Blue3 with IK leslie, Dune 3, a bit of Omnisphere and Valhalla vintage verb on almost everything 
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Any videos?
I don’t have a video from this particular sunny gig, but this is our promo video: VAN EIGEN BODEM PROMO 2023 - YouTube
Excellent!
I have not yet encountered any problems of overheating due to the sun and high outdoor temperatures, having always asked to be provided with an umbrella, parasol or similar.
But 2 years ago I encountered a problem of a different kind: the laptop was in the shade during the sound check, but one hour later, during the performance, the sun moved in and began to beat down on the laptop screen… At the end of the performance the audience was asking for unscheduled extras, but I could not spot the rackspaces properly and had to improvise with whatever I could get my hands on, clicking blindly 
As I had to play two more times a few days later, I immediately ordered this kind of sunshade, which has the dual advantage of protecting the laptop from the sun and, above all, allowing you to see what is on the screen comfortably.
Once folded, it can be stored in the laptop case.
That’s a very useful item!
Do you have a link to the product?
I played a show several years ago at San Antonio’s Sunken Gardens. Was 103 degrees in the shade. Late afternoon sun blazed the entire venue. Concrete stage and patron floor. Radiant heat!!! 
I had a Nord Lead 2 as the top tier keyboard. It offered a good bit of shade to the lower keyboard. The red Nord case was too hot to touch after sound check, but had to leave it on the stage till show time. I covered it with a towel to keep the direct sun off of it. It cooled it down enough that I had no issue.
Was about the hottest show temperature wise I’ve played.
My last two outdoor shows (in the last two weeks) were both cut short. First was because the power tripped at a waterpark we played, because too much electricity was being pulled by the facility and vendors trying to keep cool (many more vendors at the park this year, but no upgrade to the power supply from the utility company).
The other was a city park event that was cut short because of late afternoon thunderstorm with lightening from the heat. Gotta love that Texas heat. Only 8 more outdoor shows booked this year… 
Still we were paid for full even though only partial performances made. 
The ones I saw on the internet were too expensive for me and I was lucky enough to find one right away on a very popular second-hand site in France, “Le Bon Coin”.
I paid €18 postage included, it cost around €50 new. It did the job perfectly for my 15" laptop.
I’ve just searched for the best prices (for 15" max.), and it seems that this one is the most interesting and of acceptable quality (to be verified with use).
http://www.pchood.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=339
If you search for “sun shader” you will find various designs of this thing…
Well done! My browser did not find this one, but maybe it is not allowed to go to the U.S. 
But with this model, you have to glue the Velcro strips to the computer, which I did not want to do, because of residual traces of glue on the hood.
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For better or worse, I ordered this:
I’ll let you know how it goes (a bit concerned about ventilation and whether/how it works with a cooling pad. Fingers crossed.).
Jeff
This will be very cute on stage
