Hi everyone, just wanted to bring this to a close. Thanks to all that assisted me. In the end, I believe the poor application of thermal paste from the manufacturer was the original source of the problem. This model in particular I have read as having problems with overheating, so perhaps this is the culprit… This caused the overheating, and then the destroying of the baseplate. I removed and re-applied the thermal paste (ArctiClean Kit 1 & 2 Thermal Paste Compound Remover + Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound Paste 3.5g + Microfiber Cloth — I got for ~$14) and found that my computer no longer overheated. Once that was taken care of, I bought a replacement baseplate (for about $45 on amazon, but identical to the one suggested in this thread), and my laptop is as good as new. Actually, it’s better than new, since it no longer overheats! Also, the screwdriver I needed was #00; it was a fairly straightforward process, plenty of youtube videos on how to remove/reapply thermal paste.