constant loud laptop fan

there is only one way that will effectively work, put it into power saver power option (either by clicking on the battery icon, or selecting it from the power management in the control panel) this solution will lower the CPU clock speed and should keep the heat to a minimum. you could also try putting onto the balanced power option, but this will increase the CPU clock when needed and will cause the heat and the fan to go up.

a heating pad is a good solution to keeping the air circulating, but the fan will probably just be as high.

It could be defective hardware, also. But, alas, laptops are always bad about heat, especially the "faster" they are. I think a lapdesk might be helpful. I have a Logitech Lapdesk N700. It's a bit pricey, but worth it, and the speakers help a lot, too.

Personally, I really don't think that putting your computer in Power Saving Mode will help that much. What I would do is pull up the Task Manager and watch your CPU usage. If it's above 50% or higher constantly, this might be part of the issue. RAM doesn't have a lot to do with heat as much as the CPU does. With your case, with your said usage, I'd say something is faulty with the hardware.

Try to contact HP and ask for a replacement laptop, if they cannot fix the issue--and I'm sure they won't be able to troubleshoot it by phone.

Just as a last thought, try everything that has been mentioned on this thread, and if all these things do not fix the issue, then you have faulty hardware.