Crazy problem: controllers don't load

[eluser]bradym[/eluser]
That should work fine. I use the rewrite rules listed in the user guide (http://ellislab.com/codeigniter/user-gui.../urls.html) but I know lots of people have had success with the rules you posted above.

Have you double checked that mod_rewrite is enabled? The behavior you're describing sounds like that ErrorDocument redirect is kicking in.