Melting Batteries & the Lyra2 MP3 player - combo questions

Factual Questions
1

So I decide I’m going to treat myself to a toy, and while shopping yesterday for clothes swing by the Radio Shack and splurge on the new RCA Lyra2.

Take it home, install the software, get the whole thing setup…put the batteries in (double A’s) and start listening.

Takes about 60 seconds and the player starts to get really hot. About 5 minutes later the player just stops - right in the middle of a song. It’s quite hot now too.

So I pull open the door to the batteries…and they look like they’ve started to melt. They are too hot to touch, and the “plastic wrap” (for lack of a better term) that encases the battery has started to fold and come apart at the seams and the ends of the battery.

I tried a different battery pair…they got hot too.

two questions:

  1. What the hell happened here - what causes batteries to get so hot?

  2. Anyone have similar problems w/ either a Lyra or Lyra2 (or hell, anything?)

C.

2

probally there is a short but also if you use Li-ion batts. and drain them too fast they can heat up a lot (or at least that’s what my digital cameria’s manual says.)