When (or if) you get this cleaned up, quit using alkaline batteries. They always do this. Get yourself a smart charger for NiMH cells (or a combo charger that does lithium as well, if you want to use premium flashlights) and some AA and maybe AAA NiMH cells. You'll certainly want low self-discharge ones, of which the Panasonics are the best.
This will save you money and aggravation, and you won't destroy any more equipment. BTW, in any relatively high-current application, NiMH will outlast the alkaline by a lot, so there's some additional convenience there. In the old HP cameras, you get about 5x the number of frames when you use NiMH.