Leapster 2 powers up to warning screen and then powers off. Batteries are new and all contacts appear to be clean.

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Ensure NO GAME is in unit
Power Unit off
While turning Leapster 2 on, hold down HINT KEY. (Key in middle with question mark on left hand side)

Once unit switches to other menu, Hit A to begin calibrating.
Follow prompts with Sylas pen to reprogram Stylus pen.
Once you are done it will return to original Calibrating Menu.
Power Unit off Turn unit on with game inserted. Stylus pen should respond.



1) Ensure that a cartridge is not inserted

2) Hold down the Hint (?) button while turning the unit on. Continue to hold the Hint button down until the LEAPSTER menu appears. 3) When the LEAPSTER menu screen appears, press the A button 4) Touch each of the crosshairs that appear with the stylus 5) Restart unit


Do comment if it helped or not in any manner ill know.

if the light goes green for a very short period before going red again it means theres a short on the circuit board. u can try and find the problem but because the circuitry is very small, it wont be easy to find. only other solution is to buy a new circuit board :(

its not recognizing the game, contact is probably dirty. take an eraser and rub the contacts of the cartridge and get them super clean, blow out ALL the debris and that should fix it.
good luck!

The item may be faulty if it is new. Otherwise some batteries are not a good enough quality to run certain electronics.

One suggestion; Place in a Wal-Mart bag , drive to the store and go to customer service and ask for a refund(if you have the receipt) or ask for an exchange. Wal-Mart is good on that. Good luck!

We have 3 Leapsters. The old green model and 2 newer models. Our green one started doing that not long after having it. But it still works and if it shuts off, then we just turn it back on again. When I called up c/s for Leapster, they sort of make it difficult to return. And then I was not promised a new one, but it could be new or refurbished. I let it go. Now w/ the 2 new models, I believe this has happened. I've questioned if my kid's are accidentally hitting the power button. I have seen the green one power off before. I purchased the $10 plug in's. So worth it. No more batteries. And we haven't had any issues. So perhaps it is the batteries. Call up Leapster though and see what they have to say. Good luck! :)

1) Ensure that a cartridge is not inserted 2) Hold down the Hint (?) button while turning the unit on. Continue to hold the Hint button down until the LEAPSTER menu appears. 3) When the LEAPSTER menu screen appears, press the A button 4) Touch each of the crosshairs that appear with the stylus 5) Restart unit

Are you using it with a game? Will it stay on if NO game cartridge is in & are U able to access & play Pre-installed games?

If so, it may be the cartridge is DIRTY. I discovered this with our Leapster 2. What works for us is getting a Q-TIP & RUBBING ALCOHOL, you want to saturate Q-tip with the rubbing alcohol & clean the CARTRIDGE (NOT the Hand held ).

You want to clean the computer chip @ the bottom by inserting Alcohol soaked Q-tip on each side of contact strip (the part that inserts into the hand held) & with the dry end of Q-tip go over it again, for more cleaning & to wipe up any EXCESS Alcohol. REPEAT this process until Q-TIP comes back CLEAN.

I was really surprised @ ALL the BLACK grime that came off cartridge.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck.

-The Johnson Family :-)

you could try this....

1) Ensure that a cartridge is not inserted 2) Hold down the Hint button while turning the unit on 3) When the LEAPSTER menu screen appears, press the A button 4) Touch each of the crosshairs that appear with the stylus 5) Restart unit

Had the same problem. I could randomly make it turn on by some bazzarre combination of pushing buttons. Now won't do anything. Call Leapster 800 #, and thought I was getting a bunch of b.s. from a "tech" person, however IT IMMEDIATELY RESOLVED THIS PROBLEM. Remove the battery pack and batteries. Take a pencil eraser and rub/clean the contact point where each battery goes in on the tray (except the coil sides). Reinstall the batt's back in the trey. Use the eraser to do the same thing to the outside contact points on the outside edge of the tray as well as on the Leapster itself where the tray goes. Finally reinstall the the battery tray, and BINGO ! Crazy....I would have lost a bet on this "fix".