Airport X-Ray machines

Yes, thousands of laptops are run through airport x-ray machines every day. It's hamless.

Yes. I've taken my PowerBook to Japan and back twice and it survived just fine.

Understand that you must remove your computer from its case and place it in a bin when traveling with a laptop.

This will speed up security.


They may ask you to power it on.

I travel frequently and the above post is correct- place your computer into its own bin at security upon removing it from its case. I've also seen security officials open the computer and 'swab' it with some sort of plastic sheet. Not sure what this is all about.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter because they will not do a manual inspection of it.

Some people say it's fine, some other say it's not. TSA says it's fine but what else are they gonna say? "We don't know... but please put your laptop in the bin."

Remember film? They would ALWAYS say "oh no it's fine" then you end up with bad pictures.

I've seen my screen flicker after it's been thru the x-ray so now I turn off the mac instead of sleeping it.

Also keep an eye on the agent, they won't handle it as nice as you would.

I've seen my screen flicker after it's been thru the
x-ray so now I turn off the mac instead of sleeping
it.

Maybe you see screen flicker because apple suggests that you travel with the computer off, not in sleep mode; not because it's exposed to Xrays.


You know how many THOUSANDS of Computers are exposed by airline xrays daily?

Enough that if there were a problem, we'd know in less then 1 travel day.