Airport no longer operable

After a year of owning and loving my Airport Express, Airport Utility finally made me upgrade the firmware to the junky 7.6.4. My Airport is now essentially a paperweight on my desk because nothing works. I am unable to downgrade because the version was so old I can't even select it. I don't have a modem so don't ask if I power-cycled. I live in a dorm and the Ethernet cable just plugs straight into the wall. Apple support has taken down all the old downgrade files, so I need to know if there are any out there floating around? Please help me, after about six hours of struggling with this, I'm out to toss it in the trash and go by some crappy Belkin that at least works.