HP Tango X won't connect at all

[PaulWan]

Hi there,

I'm at the end of the line here: I got a HP Tango X from a friend, and while everything used to work fine for him, I cannot connect to the printer in any way! Please note that I downloaded and read the Tango X's official PDF manual, and I tried a lot of things already:

Here's the behavior that I get:

• Auto Wireless Connect (ACW): after holding the network button for more than 3 seconds, the Edge light shows the right pattern, but the printer does not show up in the "HP Smart" app. On all devices, I made sure that the necessary permissions were granted to the app. The printer also never shows up in the list of visible Bluetooth devices. I have tried this on
  1. ASUS Zenfone 9 with Android
  2. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ with Android
  3. Lenovo Think T450s with Windows 10
• WPS Push Button method: after holding the network button and the power button, the Edge light shows the right pattern, but it never connects to my network. I have a normal FritzBox, and never experienced WPS-issues with previous devices.
• WiFi direct: after holding the info button, and then pressing the cancel, info, and resume button at the same time, the Edge light initially shows the right pattern (blue light moving from the edges into the middle, followed by one of the smaller bars turning on). But then the entire front turns off. Nothing blinks, nothing lights up. No new networks pop up on any of my devices.
• WPS PIN: after holding the info button, and then holding the info button plus the resume button, I get a printed page titled "HP Network Configuration Page". Here's where things get juicy: instead of a WPS PIN, it only contains an error message:

You cannot use the device's built-in networking capabilities because these capabilities were disabled when the device was set up. For more information, contact your network administrator or the person who set up the device.​

After moving past the question why the hell anybody would allow the networking to be completely disabled on a device that has no hardware ports (looking at you, HP), I did a factory reset (holding the network button plus the power button, while the ink door is open). In fact, I did quite a few resets, because the printers behavior never changed. Even after several resets, I could not connect in any way. This, combined with the sketchy WPS PIN error message, makes me believe that something deep in the system is misconfigured or broken.

What other things can I try? The device is in perfect shape, and I bought brand-new cartridges. I would hate to throw all this away. Any and all input is appreciated, thanks!