I got my hands on what looks to be a clean Astra Mega 1-group automatic. Called Astra and spoke to a pretty unhelpful tech ("how do you know there's no water in the boiler?") but here's the deal: when I power it on, it clicks a bit and seems to warm up, but pump does not take in water from the reservoir; eventually a red ERROR light blinks, but it will stop here and start there, off and on. If I wait a while and open the hot water valve, a few drops of not-hot water will come out, then nothing. Pushing a brew button activates the group pump or whatever, but nothing comes out. Opening the steam wand valve results in absolutely nothing. 
Is the pump broken? Or is it in the electronics? anybody?