Desperate and at wit's end; corrupted game saves making SHIII unplayable for me

I know there's always been problems with corrupted saves. That's been plaguing us for, like, forever. But it's now reached the point where I no longer want to play SHIII.

To start, because of the way I play (max TD of 128) my patrols usually last me one to three RL weeks in length since I usually can usually only play a couple of hours each day. This necessitates, at a minimum, alt-tabbing while paused in order to use the computer for other functions (email, document writing, etc) as well as hibernating when not in use, both of those capable of crashing either the game or the entire PC at times due to conflicts.

Since I have no desire to lose a two RL week old patrol I save the game at strategic points. I never save unless I'm surfaced, with no ships, submarines and/or aircraft present, and far more than 50 klicks from any port or land.

Nothing I do matters.

Every saved game crashes during reload unless it is in port before or after a patrol.

EVERY.
SAVED.
GAME.

I don't know what to do, or try, at this point. I've tried the read-only attribute unticking trick. I've cleared out the majority of past saved games to avoid overloading the saved games. I've tried every tip and trick I've read about here.

I've deleted the entire game and reinstalled it clean, along with GWX Gold (as per the instructions) I've installed the hardfixes and mods as per their instructions, and the game runs fine in all respects. It's only with reloading a saved game that I experience this problem, and I have no realistic way to use a single PC just to play SHIII/GWX.

At this point I'm pretty much done playing (well, trying to, any way).

[Aktungbby]

Albrecht Von Hesse! after a long silent run!

[jimislander]

Try installing another hard drive, one big enough to take the game and your mods. I have XP for sh3 on 160gb drive, and win7 on the other drives for PC work and so far no problems

[bstanko6]

Albrecht! Don't feel bad. This is why I switched to NYGM!!!

GWX is a beautiful lady, but like all ladies they have their moments that drive you mad!

NYGM is much better. I have a CTD one out of every 10 loading screens and never during game. Never had a corrupt save. And a lot of GWX mods work with it.

I have tweaked NYGM so much it is damn near GWX quality with the exceptions of the harbour traffic and airplanes flying in them. Try NYGM you will never go back!!!!

[THEBERBSTER]

A Warm Welcome Back To The Subsim Community > Albrecht Von Hesse!
Highly Recommended > LIVING SILENT HUNTER III EDITION 2015 Mega Mod > Full Tutorials And Much More In My Signature

The crashes happening when loading saved games is a classic compatibility mode problem.
I have never experienced any game save corruptions playing 3-4 or 5.
I have experience loading crashes with 3, not anymore, but never with 4 or 5.
You are doing everything right as you have described in your post.
Never install in the Program (x86) folder.
Run all your applications in an a administrator mode including JSGME.
If running OS10 change your SH3.exe to run in Windows 7 compatibility mode.
If using SH3Commander always start the game from it.
Do not start from shortcuts.
From the Task Bar maybe ok?
Starting from the actual application is the best way.

[sublynx]

Maybe try running barebone NYGM with no other mods to see if it gets stable. If it's stable start adding mods until it gets unstable again and then cut back on the load. If at all possible maybe try to find some used computer to run the game with.

[Benzin1973]

Recently i had a similar issue, all my saved games failed to load.
I disabled the GWX effects mod, and the games loaded fine again. I then re enabled the gwx effects and everything worked.

give it a try