You might has a nasty on it, or it might be something more simple.
Does the laptop automatically connect to the internet? If so, perhaps its wireless is turned off.
Does she have a desktop picture? Is it loading before you get the error message?
It could be that she has chosen a picture located on the internet as her desktop picture and if the computer can't gt to the internet, it can't load the picture.
Try restarting in Safe Mode - without networking. Scan the computer. Clean anything it finds. If it finds anything, turn off System Restore, as some nasties reinstall themselves from restore points.
Restart the computer. See what happens. Scan again. Only when clean, turn back on System Restore.
I would also recommend Malwarebytes. Scan as above with it.