I have a 9.6v Black and Decker drill and one day I picked it up and it did nothing and so I charged it and it worked some then quit. I decided the batteries had gone bad so I took it apart and tested them and had 2 that measured 0.0v. I put it on the charger for about 5 minutes and measured them again... 2 of them 0.0v the rest about 1.3v or so. I went ahead and cut them out of the packs and was looking for replacement 4/5 subC nicads even calling locally when I stubled across a page discussing zapping dead nicads with about 5-10A to nuke dendrites that form on cells which short them out. I tested the 0v ones to be short.... yes they were shorted. I thought... how can I zap these things? There sat on a shelf a 12/6 v battery charger for lead acid cells with a 0-1.2A scale and a 6A setting when clicked "on" I went ahead and put it on 6v and 6A and after zapping each cell I tested it... one measured 1.38v so I tried the next... nope... nope... zap... 1.3v or so.. I went ahead and resoldered the pack back together and measured it... 9.5v.... put it on the charger for awhile.... and then took it off and calculated it should be about 10v or so... still low checked all the batteries and another one was shorted..... ZAP 3 times... 1.3v. After charging for about 2 hours it measures about 11v now and the drill is spinning fast. I am unsure how much capacity the batteries have or if it will be fine tomorrow but zapping nicads seems to work if they are truly shorted. I may have saved myself about $10-$12 in batteries.