Transporting a Desktop computor
 

I want to haul up my prior desktop to my mother in law. she needs a web sercher and a bit of word. her machine has been badly crossthreaded.

are the TSA problems so severe that i should use fed ex? probably cost about the same.

Back when I bought parts in the USA and brought it all out to Poland I never had a issue. But I had each of the parts sepertaly packed.I actually shipped out and took as checked baggage probably 5 boxes or so.
Same goes for Mexico. My father just brought a small desktop down. He Just packed it well with a lot of bubble wrap and clothes.

I would ship it, it's just easier. If you have enough time ground shouldn't be too bad.

Shipped with proper padding would be best, I checked in my mATX casing with a comforter as protection, ended up getting disfigured (there was the fragile sticker on the luggage) and damaging one of my DVD drives, comp works fine otherwise.

What do you mean by "crossthreaded"?

My guess is "fragmented", but defragging doesn't require a new computer...

loaded 32 tons of free crap and garbage. unit will not boot to clean window. keeps going round and round answering to free stuff. if you have not seen a machine like this it is hard to describe. will work again with total wipe and complete reload.

this is not a defrag problem. i have never seen a badly fragged computer that would not function.

Does she need a whole new machine, or can you just swap out the hard drive?

I've done all three of the following:
1. Checked a desktop in my full-size suitcase. No problems, but I followed my recommended procedure below.
2. Carried on the guts of my computer in my carryon - hard drive, motherboard with CPU and CPU heat sink attached, optical drive, plus various assorted cables. It got hand-inspected by the TSA but it might have helped that I profile well, have good "TSA demeanor/vibe", and also look sufficiently geeky.
3. Checked a case in it's original box.

If you have the original box the case came in, I'd suggest pulling the hard drive and optical drive (and hand-carrying those), pack the insides of the case with filler, and checking the computer in the original box. I think this is the recommended procedure for the LAN party crowd and is why I have all the original boxes and packaging from my computer cases despite my wife's complaints.