What to do with my ATV Gen 1

[Maui19]

I have an old ATV Gen 1. About a year ago, its Wi-Fi function stopped working. The only way I can use it is by connecting it to one of my Airport Express' via an ethernet cable. This is a bit of a pain because I use the AExpress elsewhere in my house, and I have to relocate it and every once in a while my Airport Extreme gets mad about this and refuses to recognize the AExpress.

Anyway, I have DirecTV, which makes the ATV almost unecessary. I am wondering if I could put the ATV to use in some other way, perhaps by connecting it directly to my network and using it as a music server in a whole house music setup, or even to backup files to.

Any thought or ideas?

 

[potatis]

you can install Leopard on it and use as iTunes server for other AppleTVs if you have.

 

[jmcgeejr]

I have an old ATV Gen 1. About a year ago, its Wi-Fi function stopped working. The only way I can use it is by connecting it to one of my Airport Express' via an ethernet cable. This is a bit of a pain because I use the AExpress elsewhere in my house, and I have to relocate it and every once in a while my Airport Extreme gets mad about this and refuses to recognize the AExpress.

Anyway, I have DirecTV, which makes the ATV almost unecessary. I am wondering if I could put the ATV to use in some other way, perhaps by connecting it directly to my network and using it as a music server in a whole house music setup, or even to backup files to.

Any thought or ideas?

You can replace the wifi module in the atv1 it's just a mini pci-e device very simple to install.

 

[AdrianK]

You can replace the wifi module in the atv1 it's just a mini pci-e device very simple to install.

Agreed, takes only 5 minutes, it's an inexpensive part too.

 

[Maui19]

Great advice men. Replacement part on the way.

Many thanks.

 

[Maui19]

The new Wi-fi card didn't fix the problem. It keeps trying to access the wireless network without success. Now when I attach the ethernet cable, it now can't access the network that way either.

I have tried rebooting and restoring factory settings without success. The unit won't do a reset no matter how long I hold down the Menu and "-" buttons on the remote.

I'm now thinking this is a software problem and would love to run diagnostics if I could figure out how.

Any ideas?