keyboard in gnome

It seems lately that more often than not, my key board is not available under Gnome (9.3 install). I'll go into evolution, read and press the Delete key to see that the mail is not deleted, trying to use Yast doesn't work as I cannot input the root password. Going back to the log in screen I can use the key-board accelerator keys to change session type and log in under KDE with keyboard. Seeing as KDE is still a dog on my system, and Gnome has acceptable speed, I'd prefer to use Gnome. Any ideas as to what the problem is, and how to fix it?