PC Building Simulator – BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Don’t know what a certain Blue Screen means? Check out this guide, it may help you out!

CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error

If this happens it’s usually a problem with the CPU such as no thermal paste, no heatsink, disconnected heatsink, or not a big enough heatsink.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of CLOCK_WATCH_DOG_TIMEOUT BSOD.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of the build I am working with.

Now as seen above there is no heatsink on the build, since the processor installed is an i5-7400 the computer will blue screen immediately upon startup. It does this because the i5-7400 gets hot too quickly, now if there were an i3-6100 installed it would most likely start to blue screen while running 3d mark since it’s a much cooler processor.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Build #2 Heatsink is too small, this build houses a AMD Ryzen 2700x which requires a much larger heatsink than the Cryorig C1.

Now I have encountered this problem in Freebuild (since I am only level 13 in Career) where a bigger heatsink is required, The only processors that would have this problem are Intel 8th Gen processors (i7-8700K) or AMD Ryzen Processors (2700x/THREADRIPPER. Hope one of these fixes helped you!

Uncorrectable Hardware Error

This BSOD error could mean multiple things such as not enough RAM, PSU not big enough, not enough Fans, etc. So far the only two I have encountered are not enough RAM and PSU not big enough.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of Uncorrectable Hardware Error.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

The Build above has a 300w PSU but it consists of an Intel Core i5-7600k (91w) and an MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti GAMING 6G GOLDEN EDITION (250w) therefore we are over our 300w limit by 41 watts. To fix this either upgrade the PSU or try installing a lighter GPU/CPU.

uDisplay.drv Error

So I have come to find out that this error usually only occurs if you are running a benchmark with an SLI configuration. This error is basically telling you to add more cooling such as Case Fans to keep the GPU’s cool.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of uDisplay.drv Error.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of build I am working with.

The build above has 2x 1080ti GPU’s running in SLI but the case has only 2 fans in the front, so therefore it will blue screen with this error. Now to fix this simply just add more case fans or if you already have alot of case fans then try upgrading the existing ones to a higher CFM (Cubic Feet Per Minute) And if none of that works try closing the case or making sure you have thermal paste on your CPU.

PRN_LIST_CORRUPT Error

This screen came with the OC update and it usually means that you have overclocked your ram too high or it doesnt have enough voltage.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of PRN_LIST_CORRUPT Error.

For example I have one Mortoni 2gb 2133mhz, I have overclocked it to 3200mhz but set the voltage to 1v, Therefore I would need to either set a higher voltage or underclock it.

Clock Interrupt Error

This error also came with the OC update, it usually means that much like the “PRN_LIST_CORRUPT” error your CPU doesnt have enough voltage or the Frequency was set to high.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of Clock Interrupt Error.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of the problem…

As seen above in the second picture my CPU is Overclocked wayy to high causing heat up and return this error, of course to fix this issue all you have to do is go into the bios (Hold DEL or F2) and either Factory Reset or Lower the speed/Ratio on the cpu (Bring the voltage up a bit if required).

GPU Instability

This error occurs when you have overclocked your gpu too high or have given it too little voltage.

PC Building Simulator - BSOD Guide (Blue Screen of Death)

Picture of GPU Instability Error.

Of course to fix this issue just either raise the voltage or underclock it a bit.

Volodymyr Azimoff
About Volodymyr Azimoff 8045 Articles
I love games and I live games. Video games are my passion, my hobby and my job. My experience with games started back in 1994 with the Metal Mutant game on ZX Spectrum computer. And since then, I’ve been playing on anything from consoles, to mobile devices. My first official job in the game industry started back in 2005, and I'm still doing what I love to do.

10 Comments

  1. A blue screen can also occur under the following condition; Attempting to build a high score system using SLI or Crossfire, yet the system configuration didn’t call for it. It really makes you think of which components will make up the necessary 3DMark score.

  2. THANK YOU, was stuck on this level for a while, turned out after oc I was spending 3w more than the psu had to give xD

  3. Nice, informative guide. Really appreciated the pictures and examples. Thank you and keep up the good work! 🙂

  4. I have two high-end systems with dual GPUs with the Uncorrectable Hardware Error BSOD. Pisses me off. I have plenty of everything, but something is still not right.

  5. So, I got the CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT on one mission. I tried -everything- on the overheating possibility (better cooler, checked if I forgot the paste, checked if I forgot to power it, checked if the cooler vented in the wrong direction). Nothing of that worked.
    When nothing worked I retraced my steps of what I did before the error popped up – which was only installing a slightly better CPU. This gave me the idea to check if the mobo and the CPU were compatibel. It seemed the mobo (max 3600 MHz) couldn’t handle the CPU (3700 MHz).
    Of course, there’s still the possibility that the best cooler available for me (104 CFM) was still not good enough for the CPU, but I doubt that the game would give us missions that we can’t complete because we can’t buy the neccessary parts.

  6. I got a PRN_LIST_CORRUPT bsod on my built computer in-game and then my real computer got a PRN_LIST_CORRUPT bsod)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*