A reformat might help, yes. (It could also be a broken network card, in which case a reformat would not help, but it's worth a shot) For speed checks, just google "connection speed test". You'll get plenty of tests there. If the ISP is fkd... you go and tell them that your ping times are incredibly jumpy. Try not to mention games, they really don't take those well. Just say something about a business app giving you alerts or something... if you can cook up a story like that