>>107118493
External fans just aren't very effective.
The cramped space of a laptop chassis means reduced surface area to transfer heat to and away from there's a reason desktop CPU heatsinks are these massive fist-sized units

>>107118522
>and I believe the blackouts may have caused a short-circuit or some fuckup in the battery/voltage
No, your laptop is designed for sudden losses of power since it's expected to run out of power due to being battery powered.
What would actually damage it would be a power SURGE, which surge protectors are for.
And some multi outlet devices LOOK like surge protectors but aren't.
If your adapter doesn't have a ground prong then it's susceptible to power surges.

> I hadn't had the right moment to actually build myself a Desktop PC
You could build yourself a good miniITX system