I tried everything for my IBM 6x86 PR166+. Everything. Pretty much every BIOS setup option, fans, reapplying thermal paste… still, the machine would often not survive a Linux kernel build without SIGSEGV, or just randomly hang.

Much later I finally noticed that the PSU, that I had in this same case ever since the PC started out as a 486, was something ridiculous, like 75W or so. I got a new cheap PSU, and finally the spookiness stopped.

Table fan was the way to go in our first LAN party during the summer of the year 2000 in the south of Spain. These computer case side panels were all piled against the wall.

as a kid I once had a PC that would make a very loud siren noise when it was overheating. I don't know why they thought that was a good idea but I did solve it by pointing a fan at it. Somehow my parents never came and asked what's that noise.