The general alarm message after the machine taking too long to heat up -in deed shows a problem to reach the correct temperature.
So there are a number of possible causes:
the 2 heaters (water/steam) the NTCs(temperature control sensors)
the tempearature overheat-fuses. In my case it was the (water-)heater itself. Be sure to unplug the machine from power supply befor opening!!!
First test then-do the heaters warm up??.....carefull if they do-they are hot!!! If one of them doesn´t warm up- Unplug again!...and then measure the resistance of this heater-If the heater is ok,it should show around 50-58 ohms. If it shows indefinite resistance the heater is broken and you have to exchange it.
In case of both the heaters showing the~50ohms you will have to check the thermal resistors/fuse/NTC.
For me the two forums below wer of great help for me...of course they are in german...but didn´t you wish to learn a foreuage anyway???
Good luck and best regards
Wolfgang
Ref,:
http://www.kaffeevollautomaten.org/forums
http://www.kaffee-welt.net