Apple TV First Gen not responding

Hi all,

After not using it for about a year, I fired up our First Gen Apple TV and after turning it on found I couldn't navigate through any of the menus. Also, in iTunes 12.1.2 (latest build), the pane that allowed me to sync my Apple TV is missing — and as far as I know, may have ben for some time.

A bit more detail:

After rebooting, the Apple TV starts normally, with the classic ATV animation.

The menu screen appears as it always did, but when I try to use the remote to move from one menu or sub-menu to another, it does nothing.

The remote works — sort of. After rebooting the ATV by holding down "menu" and "-", it goes into the Recovery Mode. I ran diagnostics, and it said everything was fine. The other choices are "restart" and "Factory restore" (I haven't tried the latter.) A restart (which I access by using the remote) takes me back to square one.

I tried to use the Apple Remote app to control the ATV, but the First Gen box isn;t showing up. And as I said, the "Apple TV" pane in iTunes preferences is gone.

Should I go the factory restore route? (I'm a bit hesitant after reading some of the comments.) Can we even sync music any longer with the Apple TV first gen? Or has it devolved to a streaming box without AirPlay capability?

All our other ATVs (2nd and 3rd gen) work flawlessly. I'd like to use the ATV 1 as a music server, or at least try it as such. Any chance I can get this working again?

Thanks very much for any and all advice!