The cooling pad would be likely to reduce the fan-spinning, but with no air circulating in the tight spaces of a laptop, you can't expect the fans to stay off very long--that Intel chip is generating lots of heat (depending on which one you have, up to 35 watts) and all that energy has to go somewhere. The fans push it out of the case. Conduction with the cooling pad can't cool any part of the laptop except the very bottom, because there isn't room for air to circulate naturally.
I have myself an XPS m1710 with a Geforce Go 7950 GTX, and it is heating a lot, especially due to shader effects. When I say a lot, I mean that GPU regularly reaching 92, 93°c for some graphically heavy games. (edit: 97°c today, new record).
Cooling pads are a good idea, it helps, but not all of them are effective, especially if you have separate fans which are not pointing on the appropriate places under the laptop (most are made for laptops without fans, so it doesn't really matter where it goes). I use a Notepal Infinite, it is quite nice because it's all the surface which is cooled down, not only precise points.
However, it helps only, as no cooling pad has the correct access to the heating place. At best you cool down the bottom, simply, so part of the heat is taken away, but that's all.
Cleaning the fans area helps, if you notice an increase in the temperature over the time. Dust easily gets into the heatsinks, and prevents correct cooling down.
Besides, keep in mind that laptops are not really good at taking heat away for some graphical cards, compared to desktops (which is normal according to the thin shape). If it stays at max 85, then it should be ok. Graphical cards are resistant to heat, and have several safety mechanisms. If it goes too hot (I think mine starts that past 90 something), it will first force the GPU frequency to lower, like if you were on battery. If this is not enough and your card reaches dangerous levels, it will trigger an instant shutdown.
If you haven't experimented such safety measures, or graphical artifacts (which tend to happen on high temperature: black textures, disappearing polygons) yet, it means you were on a correct temperature, in my opinion.
Best Answer
Numbers I like to go with for laptop innards are:
Considering your machine uses a Turion QL-60 1.9Ghz Dual-core, I'd say something's working REAL hard, or it was on that bed roasting for a good amount of time. Found spec doc here, not sure if it's accurate though : http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01550109&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3805752
I carry an Everki Chill Pill for when I'm on-the-go: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5384436&CatId=3486 -- It's a simple little bean that splits in half and elevates the notebook about half an inch, which is sufficient for my machine. ymmv.
I have a Logitech Alto Express at work, which has a curved channel that promotes airflow in addition to raising the unit to eye-level: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000RZNI48?tag=gotapex A fancier model with a USB hub and a keyboard exist too.
I'm not too much of a fan of the cooling pads that forcefully push air through the chassis, but I know some machines can definitely benefit from them. I haven't had too much experience with these.
Cleaning out your machine like Dmatig suggested is number one though -- I cleaned out a friend's notebook after he deployed to Iraq. Red sand, and Kool-Aid Mix (absorbed moisture and turned into a thick sticky goo that attracted more dust and lint) had caked inside the heatsink fins and was choking the poor machine.
Thankfully, the thermal zones were obeyed and the machine downclocked or shutdown each time a dangerous temperature was reached. Applied some fresh heatsink paste and the machine was running much cooler.