Hello KarlFranz1870,
Welcome to Subsim, and here you will find many passionate and enthusiastic members with useful advice to get your game working the way you'd like it. I have some basic suggestions based on your initial comments:
1. Ensure you have your version of Silent Hunter 3 updated to version 1.4b. This is usually guaranteed straight from Ubisoft unless you have a DVD copy going back to 2005, which is easy to take care of also. If that's the case then please say.
2. Ensure that you have installed Silent Hunter 3 to another directory outside of Program Files (x86). This causes big problems with the game.
3. Been a while since I installed GWX but if you have to install it again I'd say follow the instructions and do a restart after installation.
4. The 4GB patch is extremely useful in providing better stability. Here's a simple one you can download and simply apply to the SH3.exe:
https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371
You may have to provide permissions such as unchecking read only in properties of SH3.exe.
5. As for crashes during loading saves, it's still kind of an unknown thing, and varies case to case. Depending on your operating system, a lot of users have found running compatibility settings and ticking 'run as administrator' on the SH3.exe to be very helpful. Common settings include using Windows XP Service Pack 2 if using Windows 7, or Windows 7 compatibility mode if using Windows 10.
Hope this helps some, and please ask more questions if needed to help in getting your game running properly. SH3 is awesome!
