Basically, I have used two keyboards on my new desktop, but both of them have keys start failing me. Before, it was q through o, new keyboard doesn't register space or n. However, they sometimes work and sometimes don't. I tried updating the drivers, this did nothing. They were two different brand keyboards and both USB.

Any ideas?

Try testing them out on another computer, check if it's keyboard-side or computer-side.

have you cleaned it?

Quote from rockz

have you cleaned it?

Yes, one was brand new and the other was an un-used keyboard that had been collected dust, so I cleaned that one. I hardly doubt it's the keyboards, but as Centeri said, I tried them on my laptop. They worked fine.

Also, discovered unplugging them, the reconnecting, fixes the problem temporarily. What the hell?

Bad USB port(s)?

boot a livecd and see if it works in linux. If it does, USB ports are fine. If it doesn't, usb ports are bad.

Or just go into BIOS to test them there. If nothing else lets you use the keys in the BIOS you set a password (cancel it) to try each letter/number.