Alright, the game has been crashing here and there for me, but now I've hit the wall, because I've been relying on autosave for the last few hours

I was in the prospectors den, getting items. I left through the entrance back to the wasteland and a Powder Ganger spawned next to me, and the game crashed

I believe the powder ganger npc is the cause of this, because earlier when I was in the building inside the prospectors den, it also crashed when he appeared and shouted "you'll pay for crossing the powder gang" or something

I reloaded the autosave, it crashes instantly. Each and every time. This basically means I've lost 6 hours of progress.

System:

Windows 7 64bit
i7 950
6 GB DDR3
Radeon HD6950
X-fi platinum
Asus P58x premium mobo