Setup fails to find wired printer yet it initially saw it and offered it as a choice of 3 printers ?

[MrTetchy]

I had problems printing Outlook records but all other scanning and printing worked ok. Exhausting all other options I decided to do a clean reinstall of the software and drivers. I do not like HP Smart so decided on installing the 49.10.4644 package.

We have 3 identical printers and the setup offered a choice of all 3 (initially). As the setup progressed I rejected all the data taking options HP wanted, but then the "Printer Pin" was rejected as "invalid" and "next" progressed to a blank white window headed with model type for the printer. I could not close the window requesting the pin and had to use Task Manager to end it. Then network setup failed several times even though network was fine before and no hardware has been changed. The printers were bought new from Amazon and worked with HP Smart so why is the pin invalid? If they are outside warranty this should not affect the pin! I don't understand what is wrong, can anyone help?

ADDITIONAL: Later on gave up and reinstalled  HP Smart ok! CONCLUSION: 49.10.4644 package is faulty (downloaded a second time) and exactly the same! I think HP is deliberately forcing customers to use HP Smart because 49.10.4644 is made to have a contrived fail. The 3x  8720s we had before were far superior to these (one of these failed straight out of the box and leaked ink everywhere). I have wasted 2 whole days on this issue and it has not fixed anything. HP want the data and the ink sales and the simplicity of previous offline methods are gone! We are thinking of buying new printers just to dump these in a skip, but I'll tell you this, we will never buy HP ones again!