What does BSOD 3 (INVALID_AFFINITY_SET) mean?

Status / error code:		Category:

Constant name:
Source:		Operating System:
Description: INVALID_AFFINITY_SET

Could be also:
Constant	Type	OS
ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND	Win32 error	Windows
STATUS_WAIT_3	NTSTATUS	Windows
KERN_NO_SPACE	Kern return	Mac
ippStsSqrtNegArg	Intel Ipp Status	Any
ESRCH	errno	Any

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DEVICE_QUEUE_NOT_BUSY	INVALID_DATA_ACCESS_TRAP

INVALID_AFFINITY_SET

INVALID_AFFINITY_SET is bug check 0x03. Microsoft labels it very infrequent and does not document the four stop arguments. Although Windows affinity APIs use processor masks and processor-group concepts, the bug-check page does not state which affinity value or API caused this particular stop.

Do not invent a mask from the bug-check parameters

Without a published parameter contract, interpreting argument 1 as an affinity mask or an argument as a processor number is unsafe. Preserve processor topology and the exact Windows build, then use the dump stack to find the code path that was manipulating affinity when the kernel stopped.

Evidence to collect

Keep all four raw arguments for WinDbg and same-build comparisons.
Use !analyze -show 0x03 and !analyze -v; inspect symbolized callers rather than the constant name alone.
If a driver is implicated by the stack, review its processor-affinity handling against the processor-group model used by the target system.

References

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