Notebook cooler not cooling

I've just get my Zalman Notebook laptop cooler and run some temp tests but it seems even with the fan on full power or not, the laptop stays at around 50-60C while playing crysis or idle.
The heat is starting to get quite painful for my palm
Any reason why it seems to make no difference and is there any possible way of improving the cooling?

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Zalman-ZM-NC1500-Quiet-Notebook-Cooler---Black-P598C30.aspx

 

I used to have one and it worked wonders on my old hdx 16. I'm not sure you'll be able to get temps lower than 50c while playing crysis even with a cooling pad though.

It's strange that you get the same temps at being idle as when playing crysis.

 

You should check your fan settings(laptop fan), maybe its not working properly.

 

I have no experience with checking fans and what not, so any directions would be appreciated

 

Idling at that temperatures is not normal. The first thing you can do is to listen to the fan in order to check if it's spinning. If not then you know what's wrong with the picture... If you hear it spinning though try to see if where you have the laptop, something is blocking the vents (including dust). Try to keep it tilted for a while and see if you have any drop in the temperatures.

 

I've checked the fans and they are on while idle, they test correctly when the laptop boots up and increase when playing games. Though on idle there's little to no airflow coming from the back. Doesn't feel so hot though, reads as 52, 47, 52C (not tilted) on the cores using real temp GT at this moment.

There is no dust obstructing the bottom and back fans.
The back fans are facing towards 2 walls but I think there's is a nice distance to let the air rise.
Not sure how the bottom fans can take in air as the laptop is normally on a completely flat surface, and with the Notebook cooler some of the air should be going into the fans directly but this doesn't seem to effect the temp.
the laptop gains about 3C from not being tilted on the Netbook cooler while it's not turned on.

 

Tilted using the laptop cooler while turned off actually makes little difference. 50, 48, 52C

 

Maybe to do with drivers? I haven't updated by bios because i heard somewhere that it bricks M15x's so I stayed clear

 

The bricking issue was a one time thing and it was removed from dells website after two days. You should be fine to update the BIOS. The new BIOS may have changed when the fan kicks on and off. Thats where I would start.

 

I've updated the Bios but it is still running at 50C idle

 

Have you used any compressed air to blow out all the open areas to try and blow out any dust that might be in the system? What about termal paste? Might be good to change that. Though probably not neccesary. It never hurts though. But if you disassemlbe it you might be able to get more dust out of your comfortable with that. I don't have much experience with the M15x's

 

It's very new so I doubt it's really necessary at the moment, I've looked inside and everything looks nice and clean

 

The bottom intake vents on the M15x are located at the back. The vents on Zalman only covers about 2/3 of the actual cooler surface.

I suspect your M15x is not getting airflow from the cooler as the intake vents are not dirrectly on top of the Zalman vents...

 

Ya I've tryed resting the laptop on the front of the cooler so the intake fans get direct airflow but it makes little difference to the 50C on idle. Going to check it while playing games now.

 

While playing crysis there was a 3 degrees difference between having the vent directly over the cooler and the cooler not being on so barely any difference to resting the laptop on the cooler normally.

 

Think I'm going to order another cooler. this one though cold, can barely lift a small piece of tissue on full power.

 

yeah but the air is coming out from the entire surface on the zalman, where you'll simply have a cold spot from any other cooler.

I had an NC2000 that worked wonders on my SXPS 16 i7.

 

By how much does you NC2000 decrease the temp on your SXPS 16 i7?

 

mevlar if your in the market for a new cooler u cant go wrong with a NZXT Cryo LX .There like impossible to source in UK but can be purchased on ebay from the states.I ended up getting a Antec Notebook Cooler 200 which is the next best thing.The Antec 200 i am happy with does the job fine got a fair old blast from the 200mm fan airflow from it is 115.7 cfm.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-NOTEB...4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1269989613&sr=8-4

 

i second the NZXT cooler. it's by far the best cooling equipment i have purchased for the notebook. i had the zalman before but i wasn't satisfied with the results, so after about 6-7 months of use with the zalman cooler i switched over to the NZXT cooler and never looked back.

it is a bit louder than the zalman, but it isn't noticeable under normal computer conditions - especially if you're gaming. it helps a lot!