Hi dr d
Your last post with your ctd at the end of your loading will be down to I believe 2 things.
1 You need to run your applications in administrator mode.
2 You need to find the right compatibility mode with OS Win 8
I would try OS7 to start with and then XP2 if that does not work.
I was having numerous hit and miss saved game loadings with OS10 until I changed the SH3.exe and SH3Commander to run as administrator.
The SH3.exe compatibility was changed to run OS7.
No further ctd's to date when loading a saved game.
It might be a good idea to show your current mods list also sp that can be ruled out as a problem.
Post #9 JSGME How To Export Your Mod List
Peter