A high-speed serial data system includes a transmitter and a receiver. The receiver includes a compensation module, a memory, and a control module. The compensation module includes a setting that selects a compensation value from among a plurality of compensation values for a characteristic of the receiver. The memory stores a whitelist value from among the compensation values. The control module determines that a performance level of the receiver is below a performance level threshold. In response to determining that the performance level is below the performance level threshold, the control module uses the whitelist value to reevaluate the performance level of the receiver, and applies the whitelist value to the compensation module when the reevaluated performance level is above the performance level threshold.