WWAN card suddenly disappeared from my Thinkpad T500, do I need to change BIOS?

[tobi]

Hi all

I bought a Thinkpad T500 (x64, Windows 7, model number 2089-A35) on eBay some months ago and mobile broadband internet was working well with any cell phone provider but yesterday I suddenly got that BIOS message "Card not authorized. Turn off your computer and remove it". I do not know which WWAN card is inside, I think Ericsson.

When Windows booted after this message, the WWAN card completely disappeared: Device Manager in Windows now does not show anything (including not any problems) and Access Connections radio button for Mobile Broadband is disabled.

My questions:

1. The only change I had done before I got the BIOS message is that I removed two Windows services thru msconfig utility: AcPrfMgrSvc and AcSvc, both by Lenovo. I reactivated them later, but nothing has changed. Could this have initiated the magical disappearance? I also reinstalled 2 different versions of Ericsson drivers but no change.

2. Do I need a BIOS update? Which download link should I use? I read all threads on this forum but it's unclear which to choose.

3. I happen to wish to use this computer for some more time, even without this WWAN card. If BIOS update fails, is it possible to return the old BIOS and how? I read somewhere that plugging a special bootable USB memory stick with the old BIOS could revert it, is this my misunderstanding? I also read about removing the BIOS battery in a T500 and how this did NOT help with a failed BIOS update.

Thanks for any direction to go regarding this
Tobi

[tobi]

Just wanted to say that the problem disappeared (and the WWAN card appeared) after I updated BIOS to the official version 3.22. It used to be 3.17.