using the 74HC165 shift-in's

  1. this is a great example of why I HATE sparkfun, they burned you for 4$ on a part you could have bought from a real electronics supplier for 27 cents

to your problem, when you wire the outputs to ground are you using resistors? if not your crowbaring your power supply and it probably dips or shuts off ... you want something like

in ----|--switch-- +5
1k
ground