On the Driver Station Diagnostics tab error message screen, do you get Watchdog error messages that look like:
Watchdog Expiration: System 4, User 2
See if the count for System corresponds to your plotted spike dropouts. Reboot the cRIO to reset the counts.
Some of these Expiration messages are normal. You'll get them sometimes when you change states from Disabled to Enable or from Autonomous to Teleop or when a practice match comes to an end.
Are you able to replace the Classmate with a more powerful personal PC to test your theory?
The
DS Update 1.0 will install everything you need to make any PC become the Driver Station.