I am having an electrical problem with my espresso machine FAEMA E98A-2 President. One of its two groups starts operating automatically without human intervention. Said operation needs to be interrupted using the "STOP" button. Could someone, please, give me a helpful piece of advice? Thank you in advance. Tania.

There could be a faulty touchpad or a damaged cable to the pad that is shorting out. The first step would be to swap the touchpads if you can and see if the problem follows the pad or stays with the group. Next would be to swap the cables from the control box to the touchpads. Obviously the machine must be unplugged and cold before attempting any work on it.

Agreed. I had nearly the identical problem on a Faema Smart A 2-group. The existing touchpad didn't appear worn whatsoever, but changing it out fixed the issue.

I'm not sure if the E98 President's touchpad is adhesive backed, but the one on the Smart just peeled off of the face of the machine to expose the ribbon cable and connector.

Yes... the touchpad is worn out. The other thing that could be happening, if you have had the machine apart... is that you plugged the pad in backwards. There were other issues with the pad too, and I couldn't quite figure out why backward made it come on... but when I plugged it in correctly the problem stopped. Maybe just flexing touchpad made the failed touchpad stop contacting or something.

Thank you, guys, for your prompt reply. I swapped the touchpads as you said, but it didn't work. I am still having the same problem. Tania.

Have you tried swapping the cables to the touchpads? The first step would be to swap both ends of the cables; i.e. at the touchpad side and at the control box side. This will indicate if one of the cables is faulty. If the problem still stays with the same grouphead, swap just the control box side. If the problem moves to the other grouphead, then it is likely a problem in the control box. (Normal safety precautions apply ...)