Re-attaching heatsink with new thermal paste

Yestersay I was changing my laptop's cooling fan so I needed to take out the heatsink. I properly cleaned the old dried-out thermal paste and apply a new one. However, it took me a few minutes (around 4-5 minutes) to move things around a bit before I finally screwed the heatsink fixed.

I did remove and re-attach the heatsink a couple of times (so the newly applied paste got squashed more than once) without re-doing the whole process of cleaning and applying new thermal paste since the new paste I had just applied still looked fresh to me. Would that cause any problem? Is that considered a serious misstep in applying thermal paste?

Solution 1:

It should be fine. As long as you didnt put too little thermal paste, it should spread out over the CPU, even after lifting the heat sink and reattaching it. Lifting the heat sink and exposing the paste will not cause it any harm, like drying it out.