Dagu Playful Puppy

I purchased the playfuy puppy kit for my daughter to build as school project.  It is the smaller one which I believe is the newer kit.  We got it assembled and it appeared the code uploaded ok. It wasn't functioning as anticipated and I planned to investigate further this past weekend. I did that and now I get the following error message whenever I try to upload the code "avrdude:verification error, first mismatch at byte 0x0000  0x00 !=0x3b.

I googled this error and it appears this might be a corrupted bootloader issue but I am not 100% sure. Also, I overlooked the fact that the kit required AAA NiMH batteries and initially used AAA alkaline.  I have since replaced the alkaline with NiMH but I think the alkaline batteries may have caused the error.

Also, I noticed that the D13 LED is blue and remains that way unless I am attempting to upload code at which time it blinks. There is a LED the shines red constantly near the USB port. It stays on while connected to my pc or when the power button is switched on.

Any help is appreciated.

I did try different USB

I did try different USB cords but still got the error. Is there any other way to re-install the boot loader without using another board?