Hi All,
As an update to my last post. I have just found this possible solution on the interweb. Will try this tonight and let you know the result. One reason I am quite confident this could work is that I know that my computer (dell laptop) has low power on the USB port.
So I really hope the instructions below work...
Jago
Hey, I just brought my Apple TV 2 back from the living dead. After a botched firmware update all it did was flashing the white LED fast (about 3 times a second).
I followed the official reset instructions using the Apple remote but that didn’t help at all. Then I came across a few posts that said that by hooking up Apple TV 2 to a Mac using just a micro USB cable, you could actually restore it in iTunes. Those posts explicitly said that you have to disconnect HDMI and power and just plug in the USB cable.
I dug out a micro USB cable and connected it to my Mac. Shortly after, iTunes showed up with the restore screen for Apple TV 2. So far, so good.
But every time during the early stages of the update process, one of those error messages appeared.
The Apple TV could not be restored. An unknown error ocurred (2006)
The Apple TV could not be restored. An unknown error ocurred (1611)
The Apple TV could not be restored. An unknown error ocurred (1602)
The Apple TV could not be restored. An unknown error ocurred (2009)
It just didn’t work. I was already thinking about returning it back to Apple, when I had an idea. Maybe the power delivered by the Mac’s USB port isn’t enough for whatever goes on during the restore process? So I connected a power cable after ⚠ Apple TV 2 showed up as being restorable in iTunes and voilà, the restore went through without a hitch!
If your Apple TV 2 is stuck with a fast flashing LED and iTunes fails to restore it using a micro USB cable, just connect the power cable as well and the restore might get through.