GTA San Andreas used to run without problem, now keeps crashing

[giorgos50Hz]

Sorry for posting this a second time, but last time my post got closed for falsely accusing me of piracy. The game is NOT pirated. I bought the hard copy (CD) of the game years ago. I then copied the game folder (C:/Program Files/Rockstar Games/GTA SA) to my portable HDD (because I lost the CD). I don't see how this is piracy. Anyway...

OK, so I searched all over the internet and couldn't find a single person reporting the same problem I have. I usually have no problem troubleshooting problems on my own but this one is particularly weird.

PC specs: MSI Z170 PC MATE Motherboard
i5-6600k 4.2 GHz
GTX 1060 6GB
250GB SSD & 1TB HDD
Windows 10

So I had GTA SA for months and it was running flawless. Then one time it crashed (During the mission where you chase OG Loc with Madd Dogg). I thought it was just random. It crashed once more the same day but that was it. As the days passed it began crashing more often. Now I am at the last mission and can't complete the game because it crashes in less than 5 minutes.
It now always crashes about when I get to the SWAT Tank. The crashes have nothing to do with the Tank or any in-game action as they appear to happen randomly. Later I experimented and found out the game will always crash after ~2:30 min. That's the time I need to get to the tank. Even if CJ stood still for ~2:30 min it would crash.
I also realized that after a crash, the faster I relaunch the game, the faster it will crash again. My first thought was that something is overheating but all temps are fine.

To sum up: "Game crashes first time. Crashes become more frequent over time. The faster I relaunch the game after a crash, the faster it will crash again."

Note that I did not use any of the customizations like setting affinity ti single CPU as they were not needed. Game was running fine. Now setting affinity and setting compatibility doesn't change anything.
Only thing I noticed is that one CPU gets stressed more (90-95%) than the others (20-30%). When setting affinity to single CPU, that CPU gets stressed 100% all the time. Not sure if that's supposed to be like that.
I also tried uninstalling Windows/NVIDIA drivers, removed all mods. And uninstalled recently installed programs.
PLEASE tell me any other ideas you might have, or let me know what you think might be the issue.

This happened a month ago btw..

 

[COLGeek]

Your previous thread was closed because you did admit to having installed a cracked version of the game. We don't allow discussions regarding pirated content.

If this game is the only one having issues, then the issue is likely game related. A re-install of the game (and apply any updates/patches available) would be the first recommendation many will offer.

 

[giorgos50Hz]

Your previous thread was closed because you did admit to having installed a cracked version of the game. We don't allow discussions regarding pirated content.

If this game is the only one having issues, then the issue is likely game related. A re-install of the game (and apply any updates/patches available) would be the first recommendation many will offer.

Well, I'll be damned. I tried everything except the most basic thing: reinstalling.
Sometimes the solution is so simple we don't expect it to be the solution. A quick reinstall seems to have fixed the problem. For now.

I am still baffled as to what caused the game to die slowly with more and more crashes each day. I'm guessing a file becoming corrupt?

P.S. Checked temperatures and so on, and realized all CPU's are working equally now instead of one being at 100% like before.