Just found out the hard way if you have windows 8 and have a controler plugged into your PC PS2 will not load. Last night I watched a movie on my PS3. The PS3 controler needed a charge so I plugged it into my PC to charge it and later I tried to play PS2 and all it would do in crash at launch. I uninstalled PS2 3 times before I found a post in the PS2 forums addressing this problem.
You may have to install some kind of Sony software drivers for the PS3 controller. I know I had to do something similar for the Xbox 360 controller (which I use for skyrim and flying in BF3/PS2). Without appropriate drivers, all kinds of crap can happen. Controllers seem to be the ficklest of devices second only to printers. Ugh.
I guess you can take a windows 7 dll. and put it into windows 8 and you can use controlers; but I can live without a controler. http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/crashing-on-win-8.56642/