Did you check your GPU drivers? Did you try changing the composition settings for GPU Acceleration? (Shift + Alt/Option + Ctrl/Cmnd + K). Did you try changing the Preferences settings in the Display/Hardware Accelerate or changing Video Preview/Enable Mercury Transmit? You can get there easily by pressing Alt/Option + Ctrl/Cmnd + ;
I suspect that you are experiencing GPU issues. I have 3 versions of After Effects running on my systems at all times. Beta (if you have access), The latest, and the previous (18 and 17). There is nothing wrong with having more than one version installed at the same time. It will provide you with options if you run into problems.
Hi Rick! I checked my composition settings for GPU Acceleration and change a few settings and tried restarting after effects. I'm still having issues. Nothing seems to work, and I guess my office laptop needs to be check. I'll contact my office IT support but for now i'll stick with version 17 since I'm not having issues with that version. Thank you for the support Rick!