1999? That's pretty much an antique! I'm not surprised at all this happens, because the first thing Construct does when you open a new layout is create some display surfaces. I'd be interested to know how much video RAM is on that graphics card.
He could try changing to a lower resolution (eg. 800x600 instead of 1024x768), which means the display surfaces are smaller and take up less memory. Apart from that, just buy a new computer. Construct uses up-to-date technology. We don't and won't support anything pre-Windows 2000. You'll have a hard time running Construct on video cards made in the 90s anyway.