Well, since I found out I needed to have something to hold the chip in place (there's no latch or anything, it seemed to be thermal tape that held the plate and compound onto the chip...), I went and picked up some Arctic Alumina... like was linked to me.
However, after mixing the two tubes, then putting it on (hopefully correctly), and waiting 4 hours, nothing seems to have changed. And good grief, it seemed pretty stuck on there, so I feel like it's a little risky to try cleaning it off and trying again...
My friend says that I might've ruined my comp for running it without the heatsink on for a bit.

I hope it's not true! I made sure the internal temperature never went hotter than 50 degrees celcius.
My poor laptop!

Thank you though everyone.
Update: I tried doing a diskcheck, and now my laptop won't even go into safemode. The laptop's now tangled up in multiple complications I guess, but I appreciate everyone's help!