Unable program baby orangutan plus heating issues

Whenever i try to program the baby orangutan it says
"Failed to run program
Error: Failed to start programming session before chiperase"

Also the atmega 328 on the orangutan gets really hot whenever i connect it to a battery. I have tried two different batteries, one 12v nimh battery pack and another 4xAA battery pack. Whenever i connect the 12v nimh battery the green led on the orangutan starts to flicker very fast, but remains stable when i connect the 4xAA battery pack.

I may have inadvertantly damaged the baby orangutan because earlier when i tried to program it i had put the isp header the wrong way. Is it surely damaged or is there some other issue?

Hello.

It sounds like something on the board was damaged. It could have very well been damaged from plugging the ISP header in backwards, as you speculated. Could you post some close-up pictures of both sides of board?

-Brandon