.Cubase LE AI Elements 9 no longer playing audio

I’ve had Cubase 9 for over a year now and it’s worked fine with my equipment this entire time. Now all of a sudden it won’t play audio. It will detect input but when I press a key on my keyboard or try to playback pre-existing projects nothing plays, and the output monitors (the bars that show how loud the sounds are) remain inactive. I’ve double checked nearly all of my settings and even after switching audio drivers nothing plays. Do I need to reinstall Cubase?

Update: audio just started playing again out of the blue, is my computer just really slow?
it seems to go in and out sometimes

Can someone please respond? Cubase is literally playing NO audio now, not even the metronome will play.
Everything is set up correctly
Current setup is
Mac Mini 2012
Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB Interface
Audio Technica AT2020
Generic-ish speakers