having trouble with SH4, game crashes when loading saves.

[rditto48801]

I have suddenly run into a problem that ruins my interest in playing SH4.
Whenever I go to load a save, I see the loading bar, then I stare at the annoying 'please wait' message, and then the game simply gives me an error and the option to send a report, and I then find myself staring at the desktop afterwards.

I am still using stock, SH4 gold edition (SH4 + UBM on one DVD).
I had this problem once before, a day or so ago, but it was just a single save, one immediately before it loaded fine with less than a half hour of time lost. I deleted the save that didn't load.
This time, I have gone through a half dozen saves, and all of them basically cause an error and CTD when trying to load them.
It's looking like a good half of my patrol might be down the drain, including a lucky find of a pair of large transports (including a huge European liner) in an unescorted 'convoy'.

Here's what the error message basically says.
Error signature
AppName: sh4.exe AppVer: 1.5.0.0 ModName: messagenet.dll
ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 000037f9

AFAIK, I don't have any mods installed, the game should still be stock.



I doubt it is hardware issues, since I have had no real trouble with SH4 before now.
Windows XP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
4GB RAM (2GB x2 800mhz Dual Channel, only 3328MB registering due only having Windows XP)
Radeon HD 4670 w/ 512 DDR3 RAM
Combo CD/DVD ROM Drive (x44/x8 speed iirc) with CD/DVD burner (rarely used, I don't know if the burning software is even installed anymore)
Very new MB with RealTek HD onboard audio

One possibly related bit of info.
I installed an expansion for another game before I had the problems, and said expansion (from EA) installed more than the expansion, it also installed SecuROM...

Have I run into some known issue?
Could SecuROM be a factor?
Or am I basically up a creek without a paddle and a possible patrol that just had many hours of work sent to be permanently filed in Davy Jones' Locker?

Edit:
I found a good save, I got maybe 2 hours of work lost.
I still have the 'bad' saves, and I made a secondary save of the one that loaded successfully.
Now I just need to figure out what is causing my saves to get corrupted, so I can prevent it from happening again.

edit 2:
Just for kicks, I quit SH4 after I found the good save, restarted SH4, and I loaded the save I made after the other save loaded. The new save also crashes SH4 when I try to load it. The working save I found still works when I went to load it again.
Whatever is going on, something is possibly corrupting my saves, or causing SH4 to not want to load saves made after some point.

edit 3:
brief trouble shooting has shown something odd.
I reloaded the 'good save' again, made a second 'new' save, and I went to load the second new save, and it loaded alright.