Yeah, the external camera does the same stuff when the game gets "confused". Avoid the shelling out to Windows, and you'll eliminate a good portion of the troubles. Not all, but most. Changing mods, even ones that shouldn't affect game-play, can mess with the Save files sometimes. Then again, the game itself can mess up the Save file, with no human intervention required...

- Sometimes, the game is practically bullet-proof, and will keep going when other game engines would roll over and die. Other times, the game gets a "splinter", ie: a mis-placed comma in a text file, and ends up dying in short-order...