In a word Yes!
You can normally tell very easily if a computer has had liquid spilt over it. A small drop over the centre of your keyboard and your laptop may survive. In the case of a keyboard spillage you may get sticky keys if the liquid contained sugar eg wine, fruit juice, fizzy pop etc.
The keyboard has a backing so there has to be quite a lot of liquid before it seeps beyond the keyboard. When it does then your motherboard is at risk and usually if a laptop of any age requires a motherboard it makes more sense to buy a new laptop!
The picture above shows what the liquid has done once it got past the keyboard. The owner of this laptop must have turned the laptop over straight after the spillage to get the liquid out as these marks are underneath the keyboard just along from the track pad.
In this case the laptop was OK.
Other clues that liquid has been present is burnt components and a white powder on the motherboard. Some laptop manufactures (and phone manufactures) have a sticker that changes colour once water has been detected.
If your laptop gets covered in water then quickly turn it so the keyboard is upside down. Whilst upside down remove the power/charger cable and then the battery. Let the excess fluid seep out of the keyboard and then put the laptop somewhere to dry out for a couple of days. Hopefully when you put the battery back in and power up everything will be ok.
