WARNING! The following can get very confusing!

i have a very frustrating problem goin on. my dualshock 3 controller is actin wierd. i was just playin a game when all of a sudden the controller disconected, so i hit the ps button to reconect and it worked.. for a while. then it happened again but this time it wouldnt reconect so i plugged it in with the usb and it all went downhill from there. it was charging then it stopped charging (the battery wasnt done charging though) and the four lights began to flash untill it turned off by itself because it seemed like it failed to connect to my ps3! so i called sony and they suggested i reset my controller. and that seemed to have done the trick.. but like a month later all this started happening again. i tried resetting it a bunch of times but sometimes it connects, sometimes it disconects, sometimes while im charging it, it will disconnect.. i had my friend bring his controller over so with the system off i plugged in his contoller with the usb, then i turned on my system by pressing the powere button on the system and then i pushed the ps button on the controller and it connected! but then it turned off like a second later! then i turned it back on and it remained connected untill my friend left. BAH! whats goin on? it seems like some of the problems happen randomly and sometimes also when ever i use the usb cable.. has this sort of stuff ever happened to you? do you think its an issue with my PS3 Slim, or the controller, or maybe the usb able?

i plan on buying a second controller and if this sort of crap keeps happening then im goin to have to say good bye to my good ol trusty ps3..