First, thank you so much for the help!

I checked both solenoids... (plumb and reservoir) and even switched them... still no water pulling in... water isn't pulling past the large particle filter (which I just changed too). Is it possible pump is seized?

Is there any way to check that it is for sure the pump?

Any ideas?

Ok, it's working again... but I have a question.

Turn machine on, warms up... the right "bars" gauge is at zero... when I lift the lever it jumps to 8 bars. As it engages the coffee it jumps to 9 ish bars... all seems normal... when I end the shot... it does not drop back to zero but rather somewhere around 4 bars.

Is this normal? Or is it indicative of a problem?

I thought I remember it dropping back to zero before I did everything I've done to fix it.