Game freezing and unable to close application after freezing

[lugesun]

Game Version: 3 days after upgrading to 1.03 and continued into 1.04; no mods

PC operating system: Windows 10

Issue: Game freezes when switching from country selection screen to rules and save game slot screen. No graphics are shown and game window is a blank white screen. Header at top of window does not add "Not Responding" after application name. Does it on every country in both start dates. Game also freezes when attempting to go from main screen to load game screen (same white screen of death symptom). No game error box every pops.
Once it freezes, game cannot be closed, even through task manager (when attempting to close by task manager or clicking x in top right corner, (not responding) is added after application name and a pop-up appears claiming Microsoft Windows has stoped working and asks to end proccess. Upon clicking end, nothing happens.)
Can only close game by signing out of windows or restarting computer. Task manager shows either CPU or Disk (but never both) at %100 usage until game is force closed.
All other games on computer, including RTW1, work with zero issues.
Game worked fine during the last gaming session with zero error pop-ups and suddenly stopped working the next time.

[lugesun]

Update: I think I found the issue. Out of curiosity I went into the game save folder and deleted save slot 9 (my most recent save) and the game started working again. I am unsure if it was an error in the particular save game or if having all 9 save slots full overloaded my computer or resulted in memory leak upon loading.
After deleting, I was able access the priorly inaccessible screens. Will check back in once I have a chance to check playability.