24" Late 2006 iMac- Need Graphic Card Advice! PLEASE HELP!

[Strangeluvcraft]

Okay, so I have an old iMac- Intel, late 2006, 24". I bought it new, it was the first computer I ever have bought new. It was great, but I knew the GPU was cooking, as many MANY owners have found out over the last six years.
First of all, I'm poor. Second of all, I don't want to give up on a computer that still works perfectly in every other respect; trashing this thing is NOT an option.
SO, yesterday, I opened her up and gave her a thorough cleaning, and even repasted the GPU. The operation went smooth as silk...
Alas, when I fired the beast up afterwards, there was minimal improvement. Obviously the card is shot. SO,
WHERE THE HELL CAN I STILL FIND A NVIDIA 7600GT CARD FOR THIS THING THAT WILL WORK ON A MAC?
Everyone who lists one shows it attached to the heatsink. I have a perfectly good heatsink inside the damn machine. I just want the card! Even so, most of the places that people SAY they got their replacement from DON'T EVEN HAVE THESE IN STOCK ANYMORE ANYWAY!
It's incredibly frustrating. There are only one or two of these things on eBay right now.
What gives?
Is there a way to get another Nvidia 7600 MXM card to be flashed to work with a mac? OR ANY DAMN OTHER MXM CARD, FOR THAT MATTER? Other than firmware issues, I see no reason that an MXM card won't plug right in and screw together happily with the damn heatsink assembly.
Surely I am not the last man on Earth who is trying or HAS tried to do this... all complaining about Apple's exclusivity and user-unfriendliness aside, is there anyone who can steer me in the right direction? Anyone who has had this problem and conquered it?
I have been inside the computer. I have checked every possibility. I just need to pop in a stupid MXM graphics card and have it work, and not get utterly ripped off in the process. It HAS to be able to be done. There is no reason that this should be too difficult!
If you have a source for one of these- let me know!
If you have one of these you want to sell me- let me know!
If you know how to adapt another card to work in this beast- PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
I appreciate any and all help, friends.
Thanks for bearing with my rant.

 

[khaihon]

Since your card is dead, have you considered baking the card in an oven to reflow the solder? The process is well documented all over the web for MacBook Pros and for graphics cards. Since your iMac's graphics comes on a separate daughtercard, you can pop it in an oven and bake it. I've had success cooking an NVidia 8800 GT at 385 degrees F for 10 minutes. That seems to be the best temperature that is hot enough to reflow the solder, but well under what will cause damage to your board. Although at this point, doesn't seem like it can be more damaged! Good luck.

 

[Strangeluvcraft]

fantastic! yeah, I realize that this may not solve my problem, but when you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. I am going to look into it, thank you!
Anyone else have something useful to contribute? Feel free!

 

[BlueWRXPride]

I have the exact same issue as you. Have you had any luck in finding a replacement? Did baking it work for you?

 

[Swampzy]

I to would like to know if you solved this or found out anything. I have an 2006 iMac 24" with I believe the same issue. The computer powers on, chimes, I know it makes it to the desktop as I can adjust the volume with the keyboard but the screen stays off and plugging in an external monitor doesn't help either so I'm pretty sure it's the GPU. I am going to attempt baking mine to see if that helps because i have nothing to lose. Thanks

 

[Strangeluvcraft]

I tried baking the card yesterday, disassembly baking and reassembly went smoothly. However, when I reassembled and booted back up, the artifacts were worse than ever, rendering the machine pretty much more useless than it was before. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
I would really be interested in knowing if anyone has been able to flash an NVIDIA 7300/7600 MXM card so that it would work in one of these INTEL macs. Somebody has to onow how it works.... these cards are EVERYWHERE, and they are DIRT CHEAP for PCS, but configured for a mac and with a huge hunk of metal attached (that you ALREADY OWÑ), they expect you ypu cough up 300 dollars... IF YOU CAN FIND ONE,as this is SIX YEAR OLD TECHNOLOGY!!!!
Can anyone help???

 

[MFBxTO]

Just got my 2006 BTO 24" nVidia GT7600 256MB repaired by Apple Canada a few weeks ago. Apple initially considered it vintage but recently extended the support for this model until September 2012 (how is that to fuel the Sept/Oct release rumor?) took nearly 2 weeks for them to get the part but they got it repaired within 24hrs once it came in and total cost was CAD $300. Also had the PVram battery replaced because they are only rated for 5 years of use: an extra $9.00.

Good Luck