end kernel panic - not synching attempted to kill init!

[BeefN'OnionPi]

hi guys, id just bought a new sd card and got retropie up and running yesterday, eventually lol. id managed to put some games on and play but after unplugging the power cable to tidy up my wires, i get this message when i boot the pi:

"end kernel panic - not synching attempted to kill init!" (not an exact paraphrase lol)

the text doesnt even scroll, the pi just boots and text is just there straight away. could a kind soul please send me in the right direction please ? (im not that techie)

pi 3a+
retropie 4.7.1
raspberry pi imager
original pi 3 power supply
32gb psy micros sd card class 10
retroflag classic usb controller
cheap plastic case

[dankcushions]

@beefn-onionpi how did you shut down before powering off? unplugging the power before proper shutdown (eg, via the menu in emulationstation) risks corrupting the install, causing these kind of errors.

[BeefN'OnionPi]

@dankcushions i think retropie froze on me, that said it froze on me a few times, so i had no choice but to pull the plug a few times, given half a chance i would close down the pi through emulation station. i should have mentioned this earlier, i blame it on autism lol

so do you think ive messed up my sd card ? where do i go from here ?

[dankcushions]

@beefn-onionpi retropie shouldn't freeze - that's not normal. what were you doing at the time? what brand is the PSU?

but yeah, it sounds like you've corrupted the card. if you re-image it should be fine, but you need to fix this freezing issue otherwise it will surely happen again.

[BeefN'OnionPi]

i think i had left the pi unattended for a while doing chores then came back to a frozen screen. the power supply is the official pi 3 power supply, the universal one, i bought it from the pihut so that side of things should be ok. unless the psu is faulty i suppose.

i might try and flash the image again or is that really a naive thing to do ?

[dankcushions]

@beefn-onionpi go for it:

if you re-image it should be fine

i don't know what could cause the crashing but if you get dmesg output from the time of the freeze it could show what's going on.

[BeefN'OnionPi]

@dankcushions i wish i knew what you meant there but im clueless haha ill flash it and post back what ive found, thanks

[BeefN'OnionPi]

@dankcushions ive tried to flash with pi imager and etcher but both are giving me write errors, its getting silly now

[dankcushions]

@beefn-onionpi sounds like another bad sd card. i would stop buying them from argos...

[BeefN'OnionPi]

@dankcushions oh bugger ! what 32gb card would you recommend and from which seller ?