well heres the calculated data...corrected me if im wrong here.
(ahh T_J...making me do math so early!! )
the output ben is having is 1.4A or so (to hit 1.3W) 1.4A at 4.8V is about 6.7W output now lets say the driver is 80% efficient, that means its going to draw about 8W from the battery, now alkalines voltage will sag immediately with such high draws, so lets say each alkaline sags to about 1.3V which is a generous estimate, running in parallel, you would need over 6A draw from those alkalines, divided by the 3 its still 2.1A draw from each alkaline AAA....thats pretty much sort circuit condition right there...
with 10440's its still about 750mA draw on each of them, which will cause the voltage to sag after a few minutes to about 3.7 which will then increase the current draw to over 800mA... and so you get the idea... thats massive heat for such a small battery, im sure they wont last long if they are pushed like that all the time.