Updated my software today and now DELETE key not working

I have a 1 year old macbook using Mac OS X Version 10.5.8 and after updating my software today the DELETE key does not work. I click on it and nothing happens. I also tried to click the Fn and Control and the Option keys together with the DELETE key which did nothing. I checked the speech preferences and it's definitely not turned on. Any other suggestions why it would mysteriously stop working?

In system preferences under keyboard have you tried restore defaults.

Yep. Just tried that and no luck. I've now also discovered that my sound up and down keys are not working either.

Which software did you update? And... have you been using Time Machine to make backups?

Regards.

I updated to Version 10.5.8. Apparently there is a later version but when I go to software updates and the system checks, it's telling me there are no new updates.

I also tried adjusting the keyboard settings to simply US. before I had Spanish and British selected.

Have you been into system preference and in Speech set the key to delete and the ticked the 'Speak selected text when the key is pressed'?
It thinks you are using text to speech as you have chosen the delete key as your preference.
I removed the tick and delete started to work again

communitygirl said:

I updated to Version 10.5.8. Apparently there is a later version but when I go to software updates and the system checks, it's telling me there are no new updates.

I also tried adjusting the keyboard settings to simply US. before I had Spanish and British selected.

Click to expand...

There is no later version than 10.5.8 (Leopard) unless you upgrade to 10.6.x (Snow Leopard).
What I would try if none of the other suggestions have worked is to repair disk permissions, and then to download and install the 10.5.8 combo update.
Mac OS X 10.5.8 Combo Update
Also, you didn't answer part of chscag's question as to whether you have time machine backups. If you do, then you could restore your system to your last working backup, and then go to the link I provided and update your system from there.