How do you replace a thermal pad with thermal grease?
I usually just wipe with a tissue (don't leave any lint behind) or a soft cloth you can use isopropyl alcohol but thats a little overkill and just smear a little thermal paste on the center of the chip and a dab on the heatsink don't worry about the pink bit in pic two .looks like it's just some kind of buffer pad to stop the metal touching Good Luck :-) EDIT - I had a Compaq with similar problems my problem was the original thermal pad dried and crumbled and the aluminium foil piece in the middle was shorting out the processor to the chassis so YES do away with the foil completely
