With several hundred customers to support with computer service, I see this quite often. Off hand, I can't think of a single case where the problem could be traced to the computer itself. All my customers computers are kept Clean and free of malware.
In many cases, it took repeated calls to the ISP to get the problem fixed.
It seems to make NO difference whether the connection is Dial Up, DSL or Cable...... connections corrode or break and line amplifiers fail. It's just the "nature of the beast" so to speak.
In one case where a dial up connection was intermittently failing, the phone co. repairman found the problem in a junction box a block down the street. Another case in point, a Cable connection kept dropping and the fourth service tech found a failing splitter in the persons' attic.
I personally found a cable connection that kept dropping at the modem.
I found there were eight connectors and two TV sets between the outside cable box and the modem. A service tech ran a dedicated cable from the outside box to the modem and the problem was solved.
In none of those cases, was there anything wrong with the PC.
I'm not saying it can't happen, but in my own experience, it's most likely the ISP and not your computer.
It would be foolhardy at best for me to say that it can't be the modem or router. Both have been known to fail. Can you bypass the router and connect your PC directly to the modem?
I lost my own connection one day and a reboot of the router fixed it.
Why? I haven't the foggiest idea! It's even on a UPS, so I was unable to explain the problem. That was several weeks ago and the problem has not reoccurred since. One of life's little mysteries, I guess.
But, clean up your computer anyway. Windows own "Disk Cleanup" program is a good place to start. Follow that with a Defrag.
There's a lot more to get your computer cleaned up and running at peak performance, but that's a good place to start.
Good Luck,
The Shadow
