I haven't tried to ping from the core as of yet. The switch is about 2 years old now, its a no name gigabit 8 port switch. I do have 2 other PC's plus 2 laptops running wireless from an access point on one of the switch ports. I don't think it is network related unless the network port I happen to be using on the switch happens to be failing.
I will try to ping the MD when I get home today to see what happens. If I do see dropped packets I will try maybe a different port on the switch and see if there is an improvement, If there is I may just upgrade my switch.