What causes Nifskope to crash when trying to open a .nif file?

[h27kim]

I guess this is too vague a question, but I can't really figure out how to sleuth my way around this, so I was hoping to just ask aloud from the start.

So far, I've loved the ability to make minor edits using Nifskope, but have been puzzled by a few particular mods whose .nif files cause Nifskope to crash without any error message: two specific mods that cause this, in my case, are Oblivion mods "Night Knight" armor and "Ghost Armor." The crash happens with any of the .nif files associated with either mod, so I'd guess that this is due more to the way these files were generated in the first place. But, more than dealing with specific nif files, I'm generally interested in finding out what the broad causes of the problems are, what I might be able to sleuth the problem, and what alternatives to Nifskope might be out there that I can use as a walkaround in general.

Thanks in adcance!