HELP! CFW messed up my controllers, and now the PS3!

I'm worried I've utterly borked my PS3. Can anyone help?

I modded my PS3 with Rebug 4.82 at the start of the year and it's all been going well except the Dualshock 3s I have have been working poorly.

I have three - two used and one brand new. The new one and one of the used ones simply don't connect to the PS3. They blink their lights, and do nothing otherwise.

The second used one does connect and I can play with it, but the SIXAXIS in it is really off. I have to hold it absolutely still at a weird angle to keep it steady, otherwise it just goes haywire, randomly hitting buttons and making the joysticks move every which way. Makes gaming virtually impossible.

Doesn't seem a common problem from my Google searches which is frustrating but today hit on a thread that suggested CFW can mess up the PS3's controller settings so you can do a factory reset to clear the data and start anew.

Did that...and now I'm stuck on the 'Welcome, please plug your controller into the USB port and press the PS button' that you get when you first boot the PS3 for the first time.

Now, none of the controllers work, plugged in or wireless.

Shit.

Help?

 

Was the system ever opened? Which model of PS3? After resetting the system, does it charge the controllers?

 

Phew, false alarm. Turns out the controllers insist on using the leftmost USB port to activate. The right one does nothing.

 

I remember from my PS3 days that if the controllers die or are dying or have been dead for a while they show really strange behavior