On Dec 9, 1:32*am, kronflux wrote:

basically I have an old pc, ...
since around when I put it together, I was getting little shocks
occasionally from it.
....
as I said, this component was glowing red hot. but! the computer turns
on just fine even now. it boots and everything.
aside from dust, what might have caused this, and should I be
concerned, once I clean it?

That capacitor has shorted internally, you were seeing
an internal arc. Probably it didn't get 'red hot' or the
nearby board and dust would be scorched.
Remove that capacitor! It's doing more harm than good (but find
someone with a soldering iron and skills to do the removal).
Replacement will be difficult (you don't know the component
value), but the power necessary to make an arc is indicative
that the capacitor is on a power bus, which means there are
possibly a dozen or so other capacitors that are also connected
there. Replace with 1 uF/25V if it's convenient, otherwise
just ignore the empty space. The size looks like "1812".

Clean off the dust, and check, with a good AC voltmeter, the grounding
of every
piece of metal near your computer; the power supply case and three-
prong
cable should ground the computer, so check that, too.