Bringing PC to the airport...

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phillyp1982

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I'm planning a trip visit to my hometown of Chicago. I wanna bring my computer with me. I just wanna know since I've never taken my computer into an airport and into a plane. Do the airport authorities give you more trouble when carrying a pc on board. Do they make you open up the case upon inspection? Do they make you turn it on? Cuz in the past, I've brought in a camcorder and they've actually made me turn it on to see if i was hiding anything in the lens. I've got a windowed qpack so they can still see inside it.
 
Just made reservations with United and they said I'll have to check the desktop with the luggage because I won't have a monitor to plug into it to show it's really a computer instead of a nuclear weapon....
OK so they didn't specify the nuclear weapon part but regardless, without being able to turn it on and show it boot up into an operating system they said I wouldn't be able to carry it on. My laptop is OK as long as I'm willing to let it ride through the X-ray machine and boot it up to show it's a computer....or a bomb that runs on windows ;)

Your mileage may vary but I'd check with a few different sources before I'd show up expecting to be able to board just because some voice on the phone said I could...
 
Aggravation said:
Just made reservations with United and they said I'll have to check the desktop with the luggage because I won't have a monitor to plug into it to show it's really a computer instead of a nuclear weapon....
OK so they didn't specify the nuclear weapon part but regardless, without being able to turn it on and show it boot up into an operating system they said I wouldn't be able to carry it on. My laptop is OK as long as I'm willing to let it ride through the X-ray machine and boot it up to show it's a computer....or a bomb that runs on windows ;)

Your mileage may vary but I'd check with a few different sources before I'd show up expecting to be able to board just because some voice on the phone said I could...
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There is no way I would let my PC go with the regular luggage, that thing will get tossed around like a salad. I would personally pack it real good and just have it shipped to where you are going, with insurance of course.
 
I haven't had to turn on my laptop in years when going through the airport. After all, what if the battery is dead? Or the screen is broken? How then could you prove it would turn on? I've carred projectors through the airport before and not had a problem. The problem with most towers is that they may be too big to fit in the luggage bins, but a QPack is probably small enough. To be safe, I would pack it really well and check it on as luggage.
 
I've never had to boot my laptop. But I've noticed security measure differ from airport to airport.
 
I have a funny story.

I am a member of the Business Professionals of American and we compete in an event where we have to design an E-Commere website site and then show it. We did great at regionals and states and we made it to nationals in Anaheim, CA. We carried a Desktop PC as carry on lugguage because our laptops wouldnt run Windows Server 2003. Needless to say we flew Northwest from Michigan (FNT) Flint Bishop, to Minneapolish/St. Paul then to Los Angelas (LAX). The only time we were required to open the computer was at LAX and they dusted the inside with some bomb detecting thing. We carried it around in a large canvas bag. It was a mid tower Enermax case. This year we're going SFF.
 
thats retarded. I don't feel like checking my qpack in luggage. And I sure as hell don't feel like lugging around a monitor with me just to show thats its not a bomb. I can just imagine my qpack coming down from the luggage conveyer belt...........smack!
 
I don't think it would be a problem. You shouldn't have to lug a monitor around, we didn't, they never even turned it on. It was a self built computer too with no logo or anything. I would never ever check a computer if you want to still have it when you land.
 
I flew out of Detroit on an international flight with my Biostar iDEQ SFF as a carry-on. For airport security, I just took the SFF out of the bag, and placed it in one of the plastic tubs just like they do with laptops when running them thru the x-ray machine. TSA didn't give me any trouble. YMMV of course.

Just make sure you don't have anything in your case that looks like C4. ;)
 
i brought mine down to florida a while ago, i took the video card, hard drives, wireless nic and HSF out and put them in my carry on bag, and checked the case with mobo, cpu, psu, ram etc with my luggage, then put it all back together when i got to my destination. it worked out good, and nothing went missing or damaged.
 
To show how old I am...

Back in the DOS days I wanted to edit Autoexec.bat on a coworkers computer so that when security made him boot it the screen would saying "Arming... 5...4...3....2...1..." But I never did.
 
phillyp1982 said:
I'm planning a trip visit to my hometown of Chicago. I wanna bring my computer with me. I just wanna know since I've never taken my computer into an airport and into a plane. Do the airport authorities give you more trouble when carrying a pc on board. Do they make you open up the case upon inspection? Do they make you turn it on? Cuz in the past, I've brought in a camcorder and they've actually made me turn it on to see if i was hiding anything in the lens. I've got a windowed qpack so they can still see inside it.
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depends, what terminal, what anything, i mean i live a half block away and know poeple, os i can get you past if its by midway, ohare, your screwed, i mean midway thare not secure at all, for goodness sake, a drunk driver got nto the runway,


so much for national security, but yeah
 
I guess another way is to just dissemble the computer and wrap up each part good and put it in a carry-on and the case itself can go in one of the check-ins. Probably a hassle to put it together again, but it sure beats booting the computer up at airport to show that its real.
 
Wondernerd said:
To show how old I am...

Back in the DOS days I wanted to edit Autoexec.bat on a coworkers computer so that when security made him boot it the screen would saying "Arming... 5...4...3....2...1..." But I never did.
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God, I have got to change my boot-up screen to say something like that! :D
 
aznpxdd said:
I guess another way is to just dissemble the computer and wrap up each part good and put it in a carry-on and the case itself can go in one of the check-ins. Probably a hassle to put it together again, but it sure beats booting the computer up at airport to show that its real.
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Haha, that is hilarious. I'm not sure what the NSA would think about that, but man, that would be an EVIL trick to play on someone.
 
M4rk said:
God, I have got to change my boot-up screen to say something like that! :D
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You really should do it to somebody else's computer. Unless you need a good assraping.
 
Best advice would be to get there early, If they won't take it all together then possibly you could disassemble it. That would be time consuming and insane though. I don't think you should have a problem.
 
I fly southwest from Tucson to LAX monthly, I have a X-Qpack and carry it on, the most I've ever gotten is funny looks and a guy wipe the sides of the case down. I say go for it. I pack my monitor in my checked bag, wrapped in clothes.
 
Vanilla Coke said:
I pack my monitor in my checked bag, wrapped in clothes.
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That sounds like a very good idea. If you don't want to carry your SFF that might be a good way to protect it but not as good carrying it on.
 
Personally if they say something, have thumbscrews and open it up for them. There is nothing inside a PC that can be confused with a bomb. At least to my knowledge... I don't think that you will have a problem though..
 
The only thing that might be suspicious would be the capacitors in the powersupply but that is really pushing it.
 
If they've got modern scanning gear, it shouldn't be an issue at all.

Regardless of what you're carrying, it'll be obvious to the scanner that it isn't an explosive compound or a firearm.

In NYC, whenever there is a terror scare and they've got swat guys in the subways, I always get funny looks carrying around an old ice-cube SFF. The thing has heavy metal stickers on it, a wire hanging out here and there, lol. It is doubly funny if I'm working the night shift and carting this thing around at weird hours. I don't have that rig anymore, and we don't see swat guys on the platform either nowadays.
 
Would the scanners fuck up the harddrives, or any other part for that matter?
 
Only if the machine caught on fire.


>a guy wipe the sides of the case down.

My job is handling explosives. They wipe just about everything I own even after I hand them my note. It is annoying and tiresome and I can repeat their little speech almost word for word, but I'd much rather their err on the side of caution. Being on a plane that explodes midair tends to ruin my day.
 
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