i am using a 74HC595 Shift Register and all but the first LED will work, i am using the example program which is reported to work and have swapped leds and it works, any ideas what the problem is?
Your problem could be anything from buggy code to incorrect wiring to bad chip. You don’t say what code you are using (“the example”, huh?). You don’t show how you have it wired. With zero information, how is anyone going to help you?
If you have the data and latch wires tied together, this can happen. Showing your wiring and example code will help greatly. I know I ran into this when working with the 74HC595 and a HD44780 together.
Dan
Were there any infants in the vicinity when the fault occurred ?