24-inch 2006 imac graphics card replacement?

[alectrona6400]

recently i've found a 2006 24-inch iMac getting recycled, which has the fans spinning up and no display or chime. apparently for the diagnostic LEDs, LED 4 doesn't light up. i think this means that the motherboard and the video card aren't communicating. so i have a few options: spend some money for a radeon 2600 pro from a 2007 iMac, pay a lot of money for a 7300 GT for the 2006 iMac, or just remove the card to see if i can get integrated graphics working. note that i would be ordering these cards off eBay for whatever price they have. also i have discovered that 3 capacitors are bulging on the motherboard.

 

[tpivette89]

Not sure what the diagnostic LEDs mean, but I too purchased a late 2006 24" iMac that would not chime or boot. Turned out it was a defective RAM slot (could be a problem with the CPU, also). Pulled one of the RAM sticks, and it booted right up.

Just something to check before shelling out cash on a new video card.

 

[alectrona6400]

Not sure what the diagnostic LEDs mean, but I too purchased a late 2006 24" iMac that would not chime or boot. Turned out it was a defective RAM slot (could be a problem with the CPU, also). Pulled one of the RAM sticks, and it booted right up.

Just something to check before shelling out cash on a new video card.

that might have been it! however i actually forgot to plug the LCD in and when i did, i turned it on and the screen flashed white for like a second, and it turned off along with the LED turning off. definitely something to do with those capacitors, i'll replace them soon.

 

[trulylibra]

that might have been it! however i actually forgot to plug the LCD in and when i did, i turned it on and the screen flashed white for like a second, and it turned off along with the LED turning off. definitely something to do with those capacitors, i'll replace them soon.

Did you get the mac working if so did you have any luck running the 2600 pro in it?

 

[alectrona6400]

Did you get the mac working if so did you have any luck running the 2600 pro in it?

Geez, this post is old. Honestly, why bother replying? LOL

Unfortunately not. I ended up salvaging the good parts and recycling the rest. These poly iMacs tend to be a real pain to work on, let alone get it to where it can be functional once it breaks. Over the course of a year I had 3 poly iMacs come in (including this one) and all of them had some sort of issue that made it impossible to get working properly again.

As for a 2600 pro, I do not have one. I think you can get one working, though. They both use EFI bootroms, although the 06 iMac has a 32-bit EFI. Not sure if that will affect anything. Best of luck on your endeavors.

 

[man132]

Recently, GPU 7300GT inside my Imac 2006 24" had failed.. so I try to replace it with HD 2600 pro from Imac 2007, unfortunately it didnt work, only 2 diagnostic leds light on.. had Anybody face the same problem?

 

[man132]

Recently, GPU 7300GT inside my Imac 2006 24" had failed.. so I try to replace it with HD 2600 pro from Imac 2007, unfortunately it didnt work, only 2 diagnostic leds light on.. had Anybody face the same problem?

Deleted

 

[alectrona6400]

Recently, GPU 7300GT inside my Imac 2006 24" had failed.. so I try to replace it with HD 2600 pro from Imac 2007, unfortunately it didnt work, only 2 diagnostic leds light on.. had Anybody face the same problem?

do yourself a favor and get a 2007-09 24" iMac. as much as the white design may be nice to some people, the machines inside are total crap compared to their successors. it's not something like the G5 or the eMac where it's a special case... it's just an earlier intel iMac which got replaced for good reason.
it's also likely the iMac has a card whitelist, so only the 7300 GT would work. you may also be able to try a 2400 pro??

 

[redheeler]

Recently, GPU 7300GT inside my Imac 2006 24" had failed.. so I try to replace it with HD 2600 pro from Imac 2007, unfortunately it didnt work, only 2 diagnostic leds light on.. had Anybody face the same problem?

This graphics card has an incompatible firmware, it won't work.

 

[redheeler]

do yourself a favor and get a 2007-09 24" iMac. as much as the white design may be nice to some people, the machines inside are total crap compared to their successors. it's not something like the G5 or the eMac where it's a special case... it's just an earlier intel iMac which got replaced for good reason.
it's also likely the iMac has a card whitelist, so only the 7300 GT would work. you may also be able to try a 2400 pro??

To be fair I wasn't a fan of the newer glass design. Especially where my 2006 iMac was positioned, a newer 2007-2011 one could reflect a lot of light and be borderline unusable there. Unfortunately none of that mattered after I killed it doing basically exactly what the poster you quoted is trying to do, upgrade the GPU...