Last week after a bios update I faced an issue with an HP Spectre X2 G3 tablets. Upon restarting the system after a BIOS update, it gave me a “Wireless Module not supported” message. The full error message read something like:
Wireless Module not supported
The system has detected a wireless module installed in the system is not supported and has been turned off.
WWAN Module ID (703)
POWER BUTTON – Power off
ENTER – Continue
WWAN Module not supported: Troubleshooting
Like any sensible person would do, I thought this was a driver issue since the system got updated. So, I tried to look for the module under the device manager but could not find it. My understanding was that it’s not showing the WWAN Wireless module since there is a conflict with the hardware’s drivers.
Next, I downloaded and ran the HP Softpaq to download the latest driver for the module. This did not do much since there was nothing like a WWAN Wireless Module listed under the HP Softpaq drivers catalog. I even did a BIOS upgrade, but still no luck.
I did a bit of research and found out that it was a common issue that some users face especially after a BIOS update. Some even said that they had to get HP to replace the WWAN module on their laptop since the update froze the module.
Wireless Module not supported: I fixed it
After trying everything that I thought I could, I decided to get into the BIOS and see if I could do some troubleshooting there.
I tried doing the following:
- Updated the BIOS from the options
- Reset BIOS to the default
- Restarted the computer
- No luck, I still received the Wireless module not supported message
Downgrading the BIOS Fixed the Issue
So, if you have an HP tablet/laptop you can do the following.
(You will have to be connected to the LAN to do the following. If you do not have access to a LAN connection skip this)
- Shutdown your tablet/laptop
- Power it on again and hit the “ESC” key continuously until you see the “Entering startup option” on the bottom left corner of your screen
- Go to “Enter BIOS settings” or something similar
- Find the option to download/update the BIOS from the network
- If you can’t find this option, please read the rest of the post to see if those options might help you solve this issue
- It prompted me that the BIOS that is about to download is an older version and if I was okay to downgrade it. I hit the “Rollback BIOS” option, let it do its thing and restarted the tablet
- Upon restart, the “Wireless Module Is not supported” message was gone
- When I logged in, I could see that the tablet was detecting the sim card that was installed
- If you don’t have a Simcard installed, if you check your available network connections, you should see that the “Insert SIM” option should be back up
How to downgrade you BIOS if you donot have a LAN connection
Before we downgrade your tablet’s BIOS version, let’s find out the version that is currently installed.
How to find out your current BIOS version in Windows
- Hit the Windows key on the keyboard or click on the flag icon in the bottom left corner
- Type in “System Information” and open the System Information App once it loads
- On the next screen, you can find the BIOS Version/Date
- Note it down
Downgrading/Updating your BIOS
- After you have found your BIOS Version/Date, go to google search
- Type in a BIOS version that you think might be an earlier version
- For eg. my BIOS version is 1.15. So I can find a BIOS version 1.14 and download it
- You can even try to download the BIOS from last year as your last resort if you cannot find anything other versions for the BIOS
- Proceed with caution because if you install the wrong version of the firmware might brick your system
- Install the BIOS update as you would install other applications
- Restart your tablet and keep your fingers crossed
- If everything goes well you should not see the “Wireless Module Is not supported” error message
If you have other ways that can fix the WWAN Module ID (703) – Wireless Module not supported issue, do let me know in the comments down below.
