PS3 controllers won't sync unless system is powered on first!

I have a problem. When I use any controller to power on my PS3, that controller never finishes syncing and just blinks forever (literally forever, it never stops). This happens with any of my controllers. If I turn on the system before any of the controllers, the controller syncs immediately.

When I bought a new PS3 slim a few months ago everything worked fine. I was able to power on the system with my controllers and they synced perfectly. I swapped my hard drive for a new SSD. The backup and restore went smoothly and everything works fine, but I think my problem started at around this time.

I've tried everything I could think that might help. I have reset the controllers many times, and performed the pairing process using the USB cable in likely every possible combination. I have performed a PS3 file system restore and database rebuild. Nothing fixes my problem. All hardware is brand new and I am the only owner/user.

If I always power on the system first, everything is fine, but this isn't how it used to be, and it is frustrating. Anyone else had this issue?

Never had the issue but I did have an issue with a controller that just wouldn't stop blinking/turn off. I had to do a hard reset on the controller. There's a small button on the back of the controller, try holding that pressed for a bit (I think it's either 5, 10 or 15 seconds- not sure which) with a paper clip, and then re-syncing the controller. 

Well, I have discovered what appears to be the cause after weeks of research. Tonight I sat down and once again tried every possible solution that I have read of online. Nothing worked. I decided to swap the old HDD back in just to see if the controllers worked properly. They do! I then spent an hour swapping back and forth, formatting, trying different methods. The controllers don't sync properly with the new SSD, but work perfectly with the original HDD. They sync immediately.

I have no idea why this is. Maybe the SSD is so fast that it boots the Bluetooth software before the hardware is ready to sync?

This is discouraging.  I was thinking about getting a SSD for my PS3.  This issue is news to me.