keyboard shortcuts and option key problem

hello there...

i have a big problem since i upgraded my macbook pro to snow leopard about a week ago(i did a clean setup using an original snow leopard dvd.. ie i erased all my data first then i booted the computer form the dvd and setup everything)...

now my problem is this...

all keyboard shortcuts in all the applications that use the option key do not work..

for example the default shortcut in safari in order to empty your cache is option cmnde..

now this doesnt work.. and this is the case in all other aplications like mail photoshop and flash..

an other example in photoshop cmnd option+shifts is the default save for web and devices shrtct..

i tryied a lot of different options from the system pref menu and the closest to solving the problem was when i switched to an other language in the input languages section.. (if you use spanish, greek or the unicode hex input the shortcuts seem to work).. when you switch back to the default u.s. language though nothing works..


please anyone that could help post smth...

thanks in advance