Cooling pad for Dell

Hi Rubert. I'm Greg, 10 years awarded Windows MVP, here to help you.

As it's a hardware question I'd ask at the best hardware forums Tom's Hardware here: https://forums.tomshardware.com/

I'd also ask at Dell Community forums since they will have other owners of he model who can advise you better:

https://www.dell.com/community/Dell-Community/c...

There isn't a Windows solution except that I'd install CoreTemp to monitor temps from the System Tray. Set overheat protection to Sleep or Hibernate if it reaches Core Max temp which it will calculate for your processor. See here:

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/core-temp-monito...

I'd also ask a Tom's and Dell for guidance on cleaning the fans and heatsink to solve the overheat problem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVI6RJM1YTo

Report back results for each step so I know what else to suggest.

Feel free to ask back any questions. Based on the results you post back I may have other suggestions if necessary.

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I'd be surprised if the cooling pad does much. You have an opening with its on fan in it, can only push so much air, heatsinks that can only dissipate so much heat, other fans that can only do so much, etc.

Unless you can chill the air then I doubt trying to force more on it from the same small hole will do all that much. The cooling pad is only fans.

Forcing more air at it may also cause the internal fans to fail early as they are being unnaturally pushed.

If you want less fan noise then downclock the hardware, set power settings to lower performance, use 3rd party applications that can limit performance, etc. Force lower usage will cause the fans to run less or not as hard. Getting colder air around the laptop will also help like using in 60 degrees instead of 80 degrees :)

But, I do hope the cooling pad somehow turns out to be worth it. Really, its just the laptop's design. They designed it to be noisy. That's a physical thing that would need to be changed physically to do it right.

Oh, too, if the laptop allows the fan speed to be manually adjusted, there's 3rd party software that can do that and then you can make the fans quieter that way. Just don't overheat the parts or you will have a worse problem a bit later :)

So far, it seems I'm not getting any brownie points for using a cooler pad. I can disagree with that conclusion, but it does seem, that the exhaust port is under the laptop, so making the cooling pad of no value. I do see one in which the two top fans can be turned off and the bottom ones left going but there's no real value in that.

I've ordered one for this MSI and hoping against all odds, that it will keep the fans from spinning up even when scrolling. The bottom of this unit is where the air is drawn in and it's an open mesh type, so I can see a cooling pad doing good for this, hopefully. These thin laptops, or at least this one, has been created to wear on one's nerves with the spinning up and down of the fans.

I'm glad to help, Rubert. Keep me posted on your progress as I will be here to help until the case is resolved.

Thank you Greg for the suggestions & links. I should have thought of that before posting here.