[Sammus]

I always thought the 'weaker' cell is weaker due to a higher internal resistance. Thus being paralleled with the stronger, lower resistance cell, the load would be distributed proportionally (ie stronger cell loaded up more). Otherwise the weak cell would be under as much load as the other, presumably stronger cells, in its battery.

I guess in the end if you have a weak cell, you have a weak cell. It's going to be stressed no matter how it's connected, best have it die young by itself in its own pack, rather than give an unfair load on one of the good cells and make it fail early...