BSOD 0x38 (SERIAL_DRIVER_INTERNAL): causes and diagnosis

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: The serial driver detected an internal state error in the kernel serial stack.

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_TOO_MANY_CMDS	Win32 error	Windows
EBADRQC	errno	Linux
EISCONN	errno	Mac
EDEADLOCK	errno	Solaris

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FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR	SYSTEM_EXIT_OWNED_MUTEX

SERIAL_DRIVER_INTERNAL

Serial port driver internal failure for SERIAL_DRIVER_INTERNAL

SERIAL_DRIVER_INTERNAL is bug check code 0x00000038.

This bug check belongs to the kernel serial-port stack. It points at a serial controller, serial class/filter driver, or legacy COM-port path that violated an internal state assumption while handling interrupts, queues, power transitions, or device teardown.

How to read it in a dump

Use the stack and loaded modules to identify whether serial.sys, a vendor UART driver, a USB-to-serial driver, or a serial filter is involved.
The numeric arguments are less useful without matching symbols; the failing driver and operation phase are usually more important.
Do not diagnose it as a user-mode COM-port open failure; the system stopped in kernel serial-driver code.

What to check

Check recent serial/USB/industrial I/O drivers and firmware.
Enable Driver Verifier for the serial miniport/filter path if the crash is reproducible.
Correlate with device removal, sleep/resume, high interrupt load, or line-status changes.

References

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