It seems it's a trend with low/mid priced laptops to stop working after about two years. The culprit is a chip on the motherboard losing contact at some of it's soldering points. That's bad news, mobos - if available - cost almost as much as a new laptop. I've seen them being fixed with a blow torch, but the results vary...
There might be other, easier to fix, reasons: The fixed cable of the power brick may shortcut at the box end or even elsewhere, if driven over with a wheeled chair. Check the output with a voltage meter. Or try with another psu.
And although the computer might be beyond reasonable repair, the hard disk is most probably at least readable. With a USB-to-SATA/IDE cable you can plug it into a working machine and copypaste all her invaluable stuff to a safe location.
