Auto load state behaving oddly, immediately resets

I’m struggling with getting my RetroPie/RetroArch setup just where I want it.

In particular, I’m having problems with the savestate_auto_save and savestate_auto_load options on MAME (using the lr-mame2003 emulator).

The main thing is that I can tell that savestate_auto_load is indeed loading the .auto state, but it the emulator immediately resets. So if my coins are saved at 5, I can see it briefly flash the “5” after loading, then it resets to “0”.

Has anyone heard of this? Or could explain why it might be resetting immediately after loading the saved state?

I’m using a Raspberry Pi 3 and am overall in love with RetroPie so far. I figure that probably plays a big part in what recommendations I might get…

Thank you!