@darkav check this out :)
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/7190/mame-savestates-not-working-in-retroarch/7

it might be that lr-imame4all doesn't support save states at all - that's normal.

yes you can. Go to the retro pie menu, then configuration editor. from there go to advanced configuration, configure libretro options, then psx/retroarch.cfg. From there look for game_specific_options and set to true. Back out and when you go to the options where you set analog or not, there will be a new option on top to save that config for that one game. So you can set the games that need standard and save just that config for them or visa versa

Wow, I posted this question 3 years ago, and never responded to anybody's suggestions... my bad! The solution to my problem was embarrassingly stupid and simple. Retropie had copied all the roms over from my usb drive, and this filled up my micro sd card to a point where there just wasn't any room left to save game data. THAT is why I kept seeing "task failed: saving state".

Hopefully this is helpful to someone.

@saccublenda Oops I'm dumb

@MRL2051 Don't bump a 4 year old topic. Start a new topic and read the pinned topics first. See my signature.

@obsidianspider

Check out this thread:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4075/setting-up-bittorrent-sync-on-your-retropie-install

@rafaelramos using config_save_on_exit in RetroPie is a little confusing for the newcomers. Maybe this post can clarify something for you:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1714/retroarch-config-confusion-and-issues/2

@Patl Thanks!