Time Capsule Hot & Constantly Spinning

Hi everyone
I've searched through a few discussions on this issue but most of them seem over a year old and are talking about steps which may or may not be possible.
The issue I have is that my Time Capsule doesn't spin down anymore. Occasionally it does, but then starts up again a couple of minutes later. This has the effect of making the device itself very hot and being so noisy that I can't work.
In looking through the discussions there doesn't seem to be a consensus on why this happens. One of the solutions is to restore the default settings, but this doesn't always seem to be successful. Another solution is to downgrade software to 7.5. but I'm not offered this option when I go into Airport Utility. Nor is there an option to do a Manual Setup which other posters advice.
My TC is running 7.6.3 and I can see no way of changing that.
Maybe the thing is just dying on its feet.
If anyone has any suggestioins I'd appreciate hearing them. At the moment I keep unplugging it which sort of defeats the purpose of haivng it in the first place. I only use it for Time Machine backups.
thanks
WG

since downgrading to 7.5.2 the orange light is flashing to tell me that there are firmware updates available. Is there a way of stopping it flashing without updating the firmware?
Yes, Apple do want to bug you.
Open the preference in the airport utility.. from the top menu area.
And you will get this.
Turn off Check for updates when opening the utility
And
Turn off Check for update weekly.
It will still annoy you occasionally because it is Apple who want to run your life. But you can ignore that too if it isn't daily.

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    Stephen Dalziel wrote:
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  • Time Capsule spinning constantly

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    Ken
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  • My Time Capsule will not work through Time Machine but need to back up because my hard drive is corrupt. I hard-wired it to my MacBook Pro and have been dragging files to capsule in finder window. Will I have problems since it's flashing yellow constantly

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    A PC can have more issues connecting than a Mac.
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  • How to have time capsule sleep when not in use

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    Is there any way to have my time capsule sleep (stop spinning ) when not in use?
    Does the disk spin up and down continually? Or is it just spinning non-stop?
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    Did you update to the latest firmware? When did the problem start, ie did it correspond with firmware update?
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  • MacBook Air + Time Capsule  frequently dropping internet connection

    I too have been having frequently dropped wireless connections between my MacBook Air (MBA) and my Time Capsule(TC). My TC is connected to a cable modem and I also have an Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) at a different part of my house which is used to extend my network connecting via ethernet to a PC running VISTA, and wirelessly to a printer and an older MacBook. I also connect wirelessly to my home network with two iPhones, a Squeezebox 3 with a server running on the PC. I have an Apple TV and a Squeezebox 2 connected to my TC via ethernet.
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    Folks, I was having a very similar problem for the last 6 months. My connection was fine until June 2008, after which my Macbook and my Time Capsule would constantly conflict. If I rebooted or reset the TC, or the MB, things would be fine for a few minutes or sometimes a few hours and the problem would recur soon thereafter. About a month ago, I had to do a clean reinstall and the problem vanished for about 5 days, after which it reappeared. My MB never had a problem at work, or at someone else's home or with other routers, only with TC. Apple sent me a new TC, then they replaced my Airport card but the situation did not change ... UNTIL ABOUT AN HOUR AGO.
    An hour ago, I called Apple for the nth time in the last 6 months, and the rep heard me out (just like the previous n-1 reps). He then asked me to to System Preferences --> Accounts --> Login Items and asked if Real Player Downloader showed up in my list. Indeed it did. He asked me to remove it, and told me that Apple had just figured out that the Real Player downloader was recently found to be causing a drop in the connection between Macbooks and the TC (as well Airport Express).
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    I hope my problem that (literally!) used up hundreds of hours of my time has been finally resolved. I hope this solution will work for at least some of you as well. What gives me hope is that this solution is logically consistent with the history of my problems. I probably first downloaded Real Player in June 2008. And when I did a clean install, I remember downloading Real Player a few days after the reinstall. So I'm pretty hopeful that my issue has been finally resolved.
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  • Time Capsule will not Backup due to a sparcebundle in use...error code -6584 come just before.

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    Here is a lot of info for you, hope you can sort your issue out.
    Disks you can use with Time Machine
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    http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/TimeCapsule_SetupGuide.pdf
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  • Time Capsule Spins

    My time capsule constantly spins up for a few seconds, every minute or so.  It never used to do this and it doesn't sound good.  It is backing up fine and I just restored my disk from it too.  Should I be worried or doing something about it?

    It is wrong and very bad. You must find the cause and stop it happening.
    Do a full factory reset and leave the TC with no connections at all.
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