Despite the title, from the photos it doesn't look like the Powerbook actually exploded. Rather, it looks like a cable exploded, spraying soot all over the place.
I'd guess that house power was somewhere shorted to the cable system, and made its way to ground when the cable was connected to the laptop.
The picture of the cable that exploded is clearly of a shielded cable of some sort. It looks like coax to me, but it's so badly damaged I can't tell for sure. If it is coax, what was it connected to?--I don't think a Powerbook has any coax connections.
In the same photo, there are some other parts that also appear to have been involved in the event. I can't tell what they are, or where they came from. They don't appear to be part of the Powerbook.
[This message has been edited by SolarPowered (edited 12-19-2006).]
