Thank you both for the input. I will admit I am still getting used to the finer workings of After Effects. I tried running the program with MP rendering turned off a few days ago, but it still came back with a few second render or a "needs 2 or more frames" error. I did not close and reopen AE after doing this though, so that may have something to do with it. Today on the other hand, after resetting everything again last night before leaving the office the program seems to be running smoothly for the moment. I've set the MP rendering option off, but this problem usually crops up after being used for a little while. If this solution works I'll post it as the answer. Thank you both again for your input.
Best,
T