how are they not effective, if your lap top sits directly on your lap there is no place for the heat to go, it just collects in your well pants or on your blanket, at teh least this thing creates a better sense of air flow by moving it from off the ground, giving a palce for the heat being pulled out of the Lap Top to go,
but yea if your fans are dusty and your ThermalPaste is bad, this won't fix anything. Make sure your Lap Top Is clean [have one clean it, see if HP will do it] and have your thermal re applied, after doing those then the... Mounting do dad, should work, but honestly you don't really need one of those, just do like I do. Get a BIG hard cover book, and place a couple of Folded up sheets of paper at the back end of your lap top and PRESTO, you've for an air vent of sorts.