iPod Touch stuck in recovery mode

Hi!

I recently found my old iPod Touch Gen 1 and I was hoping to get it working again, e.g. as an MP3 Player. Point is, I have no idea as to what password it's locked with. After several failed guesses it asked me to connect to iTunes to continue, which I did, then it started to contact Apple servers for whatever reason. Failed. So I searched online and many people have suggested it'd be put in "recovery mode", with the whole 30 pin connector and an arrow pointing to a logo of iTunes. I connected it and iTunes said that it needs to be restored with the latest version of the firmware. I pressed "erase and restore" and it started extracting the software; after about 10 or so seconds it said it cannot be restored with an error code of (5), I believe. After that the iPod didn't want to boot up to the OS, only recovery mode was present. I've tried using an older version of iTunes (version 7.x.x) and it couldn't even contact the servers, I sat there waiting for 10 or so minutes and just gave up. Then I found another version of iTunes (11.x.x) which, when it began the restore process (extracting software, *then* preparing iPod for restore), successfully restarted the iPod and the Apple logo appeared on the screen with a little loading circle at the bottom. One more restart and 5 minutes later it too said that it couldn't be restored, with an error code of 1611.

I've also tried downloading .ipsw files and, using shift click on restore, manually selecting the firmware (version 3.1.3 and 3.1.2), instead of it contacting Apple servers. Same error - 1611.

Another thing I've tried is using this "redsnow" software which claimed that it could remove the recovery boot loop (and another option called "just" boot?). Neither worked. Another option was to put it in "pawned" DFU mode, which would allow iTunes to install custom firmware, and the one I've tried is whitedoor, and just out of curiosity also tried the two official firmwares from before. Again, 1611.

So now I have no idea if I have a brick to hold and hit people with or if there's something I can do.

I strongly believe it isn't a hardware problem, the fact that before the first failed restore attempt it was booting perfectly removes that speculation.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you.