Hi Guys,
A couple days ago i received 2 7.2v Duratrax DTX 5000 nimhs that i purchased from Tower. last night i put one in my CC01 to test a receiver that i had just changed out, switched it on and nothing. the ESC didn't even beep. when i put it on the volt meter, it read 3.6v. so i put the other battery on the volt meter and that one read 6.3v. so i put this battery in the car and it ran about 10 feet then died.

Is it normal for these batteries to arrive like this? i'm pretty new to the electric side of rc, that being said, i have been using a Duratrax 7.2v Onyx 3000mah for the past 2 months and had no problems with it i didn't need to charge it initially as well. worked fine for at least an hour before i charged it the first time. I also have been using 3s lipos on another car for about 6 months now with no issues

Anywho, i'm using a venom pro charger. the battery that read about 3.6v, i put it to charge on the chg/dschg for 2 cycles charge at 4A and discharge at 1A to cut off at .9v per cell. it went through the first charge in about 65 minutes, it took 3300 mah, then it took about 90 minutes to discharge, the second cycle reached 4400mah in about 75 minutes and then i saw it start to smoke. so i quickly disconnected it and tossed it outside. thats when one of the cells popped.

did i do something incorrect? or was this a bad battery? i am very wary now about charging up the second battery.