The RCA’s are (almost certainly imho) NOT the reason for any of your problems. It might be a problem with your USB ports, it could be a faulty unit (haven’t heard of it as a generic problem and we have many readers using one). Actually we always include the SB in our listing of “favorite” starter controllers.
All this stuff can be tested, but takes some time and access to some extra gear. You could hook the player up to another PC and see if you can reproduce the problem (if so, it’s in the unit, if not then probably in the laptop/PC you are using). Swapping the USB cable is an option. Using a powered usb hub (this eliminates a shaky power supply to the PC’s USB ports) is another.
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