After an awful lot of research, techy stuff and cost, I've got the lighting working on my M17X-R1. I originally bought the laptop online knowing that the lighting effects were not working, I've been a computer engineer for 30 years and was sure with a bit of effort I could work it out. The fault was the classic - with the unknown USB device in device manager, the .NET errors on startup and when running AlienwareAlienFXTester.exe I got the board not found error, and of course no lighting at all. Now though.......LED's woohoo.
I think I can get any M17X-R1 working and probably R2's as well. The fix doesn't require the motherboard to be removed, and there is no component replacement needed. I can do this for about £75 excluding packaging/insurance etc. I may do this on ebay to give the laptop owner a degree of security. Or if anyone lives near Newcastle they can pop around and I will fix it in front of them.
regards, Peter