dem extraction & examine

Hello there, I hope you all are doing well.

I am still having problems reading in my dems. This is the output from the command m.dem.examine. Note the resolution (0)

MINDEGO HILL,CA BIG BASIN DEM DLG-DEM

min elevation: 224.000000 max elevation: 2816.000000

ns_res: 0.000000 ew_res: 0.000000
# of columns in file = 809773872

file north UTM = 4136628.750000
file south UTM = 4122665.750000
file east UTM = 577600.937500
file west UTM = 566405.250000
-------------------------------

This is the outcome of the command m.dem.extract (using an exabyte tape, but the same shows for the 1/2 inch tape):
enter option > 1024

You have chosen:
  blocksize=1024
Is this correct? (y/n) [y]
Current Window Settings-----------------------------
rows: 1173
cols: 1167
north: 4130200.000000
south: 4095000.000000
east: 590000.000000
west: 555000.000000
ns_res: 30.008525
ew_res: 29.991431

Reading Elevation Tape...
ERROR: error reading tape

Mapset <PERMANENT> in Location <california>
GRASS 4.0 >

Does anyone have an idea about what is going on here? I have heard rumors recently that GRASS and Sun Sparcstations don't get along. Is that the problem?
I would sincerely appreciate any help on these matters.

Danimal