This is a mechanical problem. I
had the same problem and was able to fix it. Instructions with pictures
can be found at:
http://www.sportmachines.com/keyboard/
Here
are the instructions without the pictures:
I had a problem with
my Gateway keyboard where whenver I pressed the left shift key, it type a
pipe | (verticle line) character. This is the same character that is
above the back slash character . I searched the internet and people were
suggesting reloading drivers and apparently Gateway was suggesting a
destructive reload of the hard drive. That's absolutely rediculous.
After
some research, I determined that on some European style keyboards, the
backslash/pipe key is between the left shift and the "Z" key. So, I
removed the left shift key to experiment. The key simply pops off by
sticking a screwdriver under it. (It is not necessary for you to do
this).
When I used a little screwdriver to press on the center of
the plastic (red arrow) I would get a proper shift key. However, when I
pressed to the right (green arrow), I would get the backslash
character. If I pushed at the red and green arrow together, I would get
the pipe character.
Ah-hah! I determined the problem. The
inside of the keyboard is a "universal" type and can be used with U.S.
or Europeon keyboard layouts. For whatever reason, the left shift key
was hitting both dots under the key. (The dots are visible in the
pictures below.)
To resolve the problem, it is necessary to
disassemble the keyboard. On the bottom of the keyboard is a bunch of
screws. Remove all of the screws. If you have any rubber feet, there is
probably screws under the rubber feet. The feet are just held on by
sticky taope, so they peel right off.
Once all of the screws are
removed the top and bottom halves seperate easily. The circuits stay in
the bottom half of the keyboard, so set the top half of the keyboard to
the side. The red arrow marks where the left shift key presses down.
Pull
back the top layer and you will see the flexible circuits. These are
also made up of multiple layers. When a key is pressed it pushes these
layers together to complete the switch circuit. The red arrow marks the
shift key. The green arrow marks the backslahs/pipe key for European
style keyboards. The blue arrow is yet another key that is not used on
U.S. keyboards.
Pull back the first layer of the switch circuit
to expose the space between the circuit layers.
Place a small
piece of electrical tape on the extra backslash/pipe circuit connection
as marked by the red arrow.
Now simply reassemble the keyboard
and that weird pipe character will never accidentally show up again.
