flying--airport security and Inspiron

If I travel with my new Inspiron, how do I go thru airport security?? Can I
let the machine go thru the x-ray or do they inspect it manually??

Mel (new to laptops)

Make sure you are familiar with the operation of your laptop. You will be
asked to start it up and show the desktop. You will be asked to remove the
battery. Exposure to magnetic fields would be a bad thing. X-Rays are not
an issue.

"MZB" wrote in message
...
If I travel with my new Inspiron, how do I go thru airport security?? Can
I let the machine go thru the x-ray or do they inspect it manually??

Mel (new to laptops)

Kevin wrote:

Make sure you are familiar with the operation of your laptop. You will be
asked to start it up and show the desktop. You will be asked to remove the
battery. Exposure to magnetic fields would be a bad thing. X-Rays are not
an issue.

snip

I've never had to "show the desktop" or "remove the battery."

Notan

Just curious where you fly? I've flown roughly 3,000,000 miles around the
world and haven't had to power on a computer since roughly 1992.

Tom
"Kevin" wrote in message
...
Make sure you are familiar with the operation of your laptop. You will be
asked to start it up and show the desktop. You will be asked to remove
the battery. Exposure to magnetic fields would be a bad thing. X-Rays
are not an issue.

"MZB" wrote in message
...
If I travel with my new Inspiron, how do I go thru airport security?? Can
I let the machine go thru the x-ray or do they inspect it manually??

Mel (new to laptops)

I haven't done any flying recently but a friend just flew from Los Angeles
to Chicago and she was asked to open the battery bay and show the battery on
her laptop. It was sent through the scanner as well. Two years ago an
acquaintance of mine was flying to Australia and he was asked to boot the
machine up and show the desktop as well as remove the battery for
inspection. The TSA, as far as I know, now only requests that you remove
the laptop from any carrying case and run both the case and the laptop
through the scanner. They can ask you to do anything they deem reasonable
to assure safety.

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...
Just curious where you fly? I've flown roughly 3,000,000 miles around the
world and haven't had to power on a computer since roughly 1992.

Tom
"Kevin" wrote in message
...
Make sure you are familiar with the operation of your laptop. You will
be asked to start it up and show the desktop. You will be asked to
remove the battery. Exposure to magnetic fields would be a bad thing.
X-Rays are not an issue.

"MZB" wrote in message
...
If I travel with my new Inspiron, how do I go thru airport security??
Can I let the machine go thru the x-ray or do they inspect it manually??

Mel (new to laptops)

"Tom Scales" wrote in
:

Just curious where you fly? I've flown roughly 3,000,000 miles around
the world and haven't had to power on a computer since roughly 1992.


Ditto. The last time for me was '94 or '95, bringing an ancient sewing-
machine-size Compaq "Portable II" back from a construction site in the
middle east (Dubai). I went Dubai-Frankfurt-Atlanta-Orlando, and Customs in
Atlanta had me turn it on. I got everything but a BCS in Atlanta. I'm
guessing they just wanted to see if I'd gutted the Compaq and replaced the
internals with contraband.

- FM -

Fred Mau wrote:

"Tom Scales" wrote in
:

Just curious where you fly? I've flown roughly 3,000,000 miles around
the world and haven't had to power on a computer since roughly 1992.

Ditto. The last time for me was '94 or '95, bringing an ancient sewing-
machine-size Compaq "Portable II" back from a construction site in the
middle east (Dubai). I went Dubai-Frankfurt-Atlanta-Orlando, and Customs in
Atlanta had me turn it on. I got everything but a BCS in Atlanta. I'm
guessing they just wanted to see if I'd gutted the Compaq and replaced the
internals with contraband.

Ah, the good old days of worrying about contraband! g

Notan

Notan wrote in :

Ditto. The last time for me was '94 or '95, bringing an ancient
sewing- machine-size Compaq "Portable II" back from a construction
site in the middle east (Dubai). I went
Dubai-Frankfurt-Atlanta-Orlando, and Customs in Atlanta had me turn
it on. I got everything but a BCS in Atlanta. I'm guessing they just
wanted to see if I'd gutted the Compaq and replaced the internals
with contraband.

Ah, the good old days of worrying about contraband! g

Notan



Funny this is - there's no harm telling it now - I actually *WAS*
carrying contraband.

In Dubai, I'd picked up half a dozen 12oz cans of R12 Freon for my car,
which I had stashed in my luggage. R12 had been banned in the US a year
or two earlier (except to certain licensees, which I wasn't) but was
freely available elsewhere in the world.

When I came through customs in Atlanta, they sidelined me and examined
every single item I had. They sent every piece of clothing and every
shoe through an X-ray. They thumbed through every magazine and notebook
in my briefcase. The whole thing took over an hour.

All during this, I'm trying to play it cool but my insides are doing
flipflops, thinking I'm going to end up 5 years in the Jug for illegally
"importing" Freon. Yet they looked right at the cans in my suitcase,
even held them in their hands, and let them slide without ever saying a
word.

Go figure...


- FM -

Fred Mau wrote:
"Tom Scales" wrote in
:


Just curious where you fly? I've flown roughly 3,000,000 miles around
the world and haven't had to power on a computer since roughly 1992.



Ditto. The last time for me was '94 or '95, bringing an ancient sewing-
machine-size Compaq "Portable II" back from a construction site in the
middle east (Dubai). I went Dubai-Frankfurt-Atlanta-Orlando, and Customs in
Atlanta had me turn it on. I got everything but a BCS in Atlanta. I'm
guessing they just wanted to see if I'd gutted the Compaq and replaced the
internals with contraband.

- FM -
From the TSA web site

http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/e...orial_1254.xml

This should help.

"Kevin" wrote in
:

Make sure you are familiar with the operation of your laptop. You
will be asked to start it up and show the desktop. You will be asked
to remove the battery. Exposure to magnetic fields would be a bad
thing. X-Rays are not an issue.

I travel regularly (almost weekly) with a latitude C640. It's been *YEARS*
since I've been asked to power one up.

You'll almost certainly be asked to remove it from the carrying case and
run it through the Xray by itself. And there is no option for manual
inspection, you MUST run it through the Xray. This is harmless.

- FM -