Okay, it's definitely Windows 7 and/or the WMP54G's driver that is the culprit of my problem (not the router). I put the MSI card back in my wife's system and took the Linksys card out and put it back in mine. At first she still had the ping spike issue with the MSI card back in her system. I tried a couple of things to get the system back to the way it was, but nothing would get rid of that ping spike even though her old card was back in her system. So I restored the PC back to a point right before I added the Linksys card to the system. Ping spike is gone! So there is definitely an issue with Windows and the Linksys WMP54G v4.1, whether it's Windows itself or the driver corrupting part of Windows or Windows just not liking the driver in the first place.
Thankfully, there was a restore point for me to revert my wife's PC back to. I ordered a second MSI card and I am going to use Clonezilla to clone her Windows 7 partition and install it on my system. We have exactly the same hardware with exception of the wireless cards (which will be also exactly the same in a few days ).
I have a feeling there are different revisions of version 4.1 of this card, because some folks have been able to get rid of the ping spike with this version. No such luck for me. And believe me, I've tried everything I've come across on many different forums. The card was fine with Windows XP, but anything newer than XP 32-bit may have issues with this card for folks using it. :/
Thankfully, there was a restore point for me to revert my wife's PC back to. I ordered a second MSI card and I am going to use Clonezilla to clone her Windows 7 partition and install it on my system. We have exactly the same hardware with exception of the wireless cards (which will be also exactly the same in a few days ).
I have a feeling there are different revisions of version 4.1 of this card, because some folks have been able to get rid of the ping spike with this version. No such luck for me. And believe me, I've tried everything I've come across on many different forums. The card was fine with Windows XP, but anything newer than XP 32-bit may have issues with this card for folks using it. :/