You issues sound like one of three things. The first being that your hardware is faulty. The second is that you have a compatibility problem. The third is that your game save has been corrupted. If I were you the first thing I would do is unplug the console for a few minutes, and try to play the game. If that doesn't resolve the problem I would uninstall the patches, and reinstall them. As for the last problem at least on the 360 version it is usually the result of one of two things.
The first being you exited the game while it was saving. The second being that you played with a person online that was using a modified character which has caused problems for your unmodified character. In both cases you are just plain fucked, because their isn't any way at least that I know of to repair a corrupted game save. That said you aren't however royally fucked.
A level 29 character can be replaced in as little as a few hours. All you need is a friend that is level fifty or so, and play in their game. The higher experience points in their games will cause you to level up fairly quickly, and then you can just breeze through your first play through of the game, because the really killer stuff is only to be found in the second play through anyway. I once leveled a friend up to 37 in two and a half hours of play, and he started off with a fresh character.
If you were playing on the 360 I would be glad to help you out, but maybe some PS3 players on these forums might be willing to give you a hand. What it really amounts to is at worst granted that your console isn't actually broken of coarse. Is that you lost ninety minutes of actual time. I know it probably doesn't seem that way to you right now, but that is probably all it would take for you to get back what you lost with the help of a friend.