I'm not a laptop expert by any means. I bought a refurbished (not recommended) Dell Lattitude E7440. It has no CD/DVD drive, it does have a SD (solid state) drive and 8gb RAM. It will not run TS3 but does a good job with TS2. I have to make sure the vents are clear (i.e. it can't sit on my lap or a pillow - has to be a hard surface with room underneath). Otherwise it heats up too much. I was given TS2 via Origin with my account. There are other gurus here that can help with current laptops and what will/will not run TS2. I do remember I had to tweak mine a bit as the graphics were weird. But there are some folks around who can also help with that.
I hope you can find one for her that will run TS2. It's probably my favorite in the series and the one I've played the most. Ironically I'm getting ready to travel and was checking to see what I had on my laptop for downtime. TS2 it is!