maybe you've just dropped your controller a few times too often

It looks as if your ps3 is having trouble "remembering" your controllers or the other way around. This is the first I've heard of this problem though. You should probably try "linking" your controllers to a friends ps3 and linking different controllers to your ps3 to nail exactly where the problem lies.

That sounds like a good idea I should try that.

There were a few people on the Playstation forums who had this issue as well and after a system update it said the controller configuration files were corrupt. I figured I would manually install 2.43 but that didn't seem to fix my problem.

Hopefully the 2.50 update wil fix this issue? I can hope.

Once I turn on the PS3, hook up the controller, press the button and disconnect it, it works fine. I have this issue only when the PS3 is turned off and then turned back on. Oddly though even though it won't recognize my controller I can still use it to turn the PS3 on.

I am fairly sure that a system restore will fix the issue, but I would have soooo much to reinstall. My UT3 data alone is almost 4GB due to mods and I can tell you installing 1 mod at a time again would not be something I am looking forward to.

I don't think I ever dropped my Dualshock3 yet, I know I did with the Sixaxis. I even broke one once because once I got the Dualshock I decided I wanted to open one up, I would love to gut one and stick in a 360 controller for fun.

simple answer call sony

EDIT: haha should have read the thread. problem solved. oops :P

^ 1 of 2 problems solved. Controller issue is still here unfortunately.