17 R5, OEM mobo replacement

If you want a new motherboard, You're going to pay at least between $500-1,300 depending on what you originally had inside the laptop.

I'd personally get a new laptop but it's all in your hands if you ask me.

That being said, if you want a new motherboard I can post a link to one IF you wanted to take this option

Well that really  I forked out the extra cash for the first time in my life on a “higher end” laptop in the hopes of getting some good mileage out of it and I end up with a lemon that’s dead in the water less than 6 months out of warranty. Dell Support has said there is no way of a goodwill or courtesy repair as it is out of warranty end of story. I’ve got a Lenovo I bought back in 2010 that I use as my shop laptop (I’m a technician for Honda) and it still works as good as it did back in 2010. Just my luck I guess. I sparingly even use the alienware laptop since my son was born last October. Everything I throw at it it is way overpowered for. I basically web browse, edit PDFs, and occasionally play a video game that came out back in 2000! Not to mention the webcam was dead out of the box “not detected” and Dell Support informed me that it was an issue with driver support from windows 10 (the OS it shipped with) and that windows was responsible for the fix. I’m wondering if this could’ve been a sign that the motherboard was no good or something. I wouldn’t know. But wow man what a bummer for me I bought this laptop from Adorama.com for just under $1600 and now it could cost as much as $1300 to make it work again 

id appreciate the link to help me weigh my options sir and thanks for chiming in!

If you just want it working for as cheap as possible then check out The Parts People. They have an i5 board (reasonably) cheap. It says it's for the 17 R5 and 15 R3 / 17 R4. I knew that the 15 R3 and 17 R4 used the same board but hadn't heard that the 17 R5 can also take the same one. 

https://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=31959

You’re welcome.

So the card readers hard to find now?

Now that’s what I call RARE.

M18x parts are getting harder and harder to find and expensive if you do find what you're looking for. Good luck if you have to replace the sata cable as they are really only available on Aliexpress for a pretty penny. All the pre-2013 machines are getting like that. Almost impossible to find an M14x R2 palmrest for a decent price. Instead of replacing it, I decided to scratch off all the Soft-touch resin and repaint it. 

Luckily the 2013-2014 parts are still pretty easy to find, except the 17 R1 card reader ribbon cable that you need to turn the laptop on. 

No it's the card reader ribbon cable. Without being able to look at one of my 17's right now....it goes from the power button board down to the card reader which then has another cable that heads to the motherboard....something like that. If this card reader cable gets damaged then the power button doesn't work. 

Yeah you can still find them but they are getting harder and harder and the pins break really easily. One false move reattaching it and it's cactus. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Alienware-17-R1-Card-Reader-Board-w-Cable-LS-9337P/352995855100?epid=1038858400&hash=item5230314afc:g:KfkAAOSwWu5eZDQP:sc:USPSFirstClass!20155!US!-1

Oh that’s what you mean,

I'm in the same boat as you, a $1600 piece of garbage also purchased on 02/2019.  I have bought every computer I have ever owned from Dell but will never spend another penny with them.  I'm also gonna close my DFS account.  Any recommendations on a decent gaming laptop?

yep. Sold it to a computer repair store at a loss/lesson learned. Staying away from Alienware/Dell from now on.