Methods and apparatus related to adaptive control loop protection for fast and robust recovery from low-power states in high speed serial I/O applications are described. In some embodiments, a first bit pattern is detected, at a first agent, that indicates a speculative entry by a second agent into a low power consumption state and one or more control loops are frozen. A second bit pattern is detected (after entering the low power consumption state) that indicates exit from the low power consumption state by the second agent and the one or more control loops are unfrozen (e.g., in a specific order). Other embodiments are also claimed and/or disclosed.