Jay Kauai

Hello. I am a newbie to Astronomy but very excited with my new Celestron NexStar 8SE. I setup the telescope and followed the "Solar System" Alignment to align - used Jupiter which was clearly visible. The message came back "Alignment Successful". Then when I want to directly view another planet like Mars and I choose that from the hand control option, the telescope move vertically towards to the approximate latitude of Mars, then stalls for a second, and then instead of moving longitudinally (left or right) it continues to move vertically until it cannot move any more as the eye piece is blocked by the base mount. Ny first instinct is the fact I am using AA batteries and they might be weak. I replaced with brand new batteries but no luck. I have ordered the Celestron 12V DC adapter today as a backup to fix this issue. Does anyone have any other ideas or tips or suggestions to help fix this issue ? Thank You ! Jay.