ok, so I have a very odd problem with my keyboard at the moment: shift + 1 does not produce an exclamation mark, in fact it doesn't do anything (so far as I can tell) yet my shift button, and the 1 key work fine. I've double checked that my keyboard layout is set to UK as is my language. Google came up with a few errors with speech recognition on macs but otherwise nothing. (and yes, speech recognition is off, even though I'm on windows) replugged my keyboard (and switched usb slots, just in case) and restarted. I'm at a complete loss as to what the hell is causing it, and it's getting really annoying. edit: turns out it's also only left shift, right shift and 1 works fine (!)
