Plusnet Value - possible overclocking?

[#1]

Hi,
I agree with TORPC, doing a factory reset would be a last resort, as you'll have to update the OS, then update the updates as well.
I don't know what kind of download speed you have but I assume these downloads take time to complete, and happen when your laptop starts up. If this is the case then may I suggest that you run a command prompt as soon as possible after start up and enter:
netstat -afo 2 > dump.txt
This will log every connection on every port and write it out to a file called dump.txt and update every 2 seconds. (Press Ctrl+C to cancel) In the file created you'll find all of the connections made while netstat was running and the FQDN of applicable connections. A quick analysis of this log file might shed some light on the matter for you.
I hope this helps.
--
Mook

[#2]

Thanks TORPC - I tried Emsisoft Emergency and Kaspersky TDSSKiller and neither found any threats.
Thanks Mook for your suggestion - I'll try that. I don't mind going to factory settings. When I had XP I formatted the hard disk every 2 years to remove junk. Just had a note from Microsoft - 15 updates to install. Let's see if that does any good!

[#3]

Following up on Mooks advice for running netstat -afo 2 > dump.txt
You will find the dump.txt file in C:\Users\YourPCName\dump.txt