Hi peeps,,
I hear that NiCd is more tolerant of charging under the "wrong" conditions (wrong voltage,, wrong milli-amp rate,, blah blah) than the better NiMh batteries. NiMh is the better battery, but needs to be carefully charged to keep them really happy. Check out the thread on "peak charging" for more info.
Perhaps this might explain why you get better results with the supposed inferior battery.
just my .02
-Bunta out