for my own experience...... i have two pieces which experenced such situation
just like k610, but cannot be done via EROM upgrade
the first pieces i use a hot airgun to blow the board until cannot read IMEI
replace with another one and get it to sony ericsson
i hope the 2nd pieces need not to do so
it only get trouble in import and self-change languages w580i
for those which have a gurantee by sony ericsson does not get such errors
i have discoverd the problem 3 months ago and cannot get anyway to fix it
hope will have a free EROM update soon