Blockchain sync ongoing, apparently reached top block, what is happening?

Question

I've installed Ethereum Wallet on a Windows 10 machine and I am now syncing the blockchain with geth --fast --cache 1024. It seems to have downloaded practically all blocks, as eth.syncing returns

{
  currentBlock: 3439728,
  highestBlock: 3439874,
  knownStates: 7808,
  pulledStates: 3352,
  startingBlock: 3439692
}

But I'm still getting countless lines like

I0329 15:02:25.506146 eth/downloader/downloader.go:966] imported   4 state entries in 213.959ms: processed 9882, pending at least 12191

and balance still does not show even if the transaction happened in an already processed block. So:

• I assume the balance does not show because the blockchain "states" are still unsynced. Is this correct?
• What are these "state entries" and how do they relate to a block?
• How long will the sync take (already going on for one day)? At least, am I at 1%, 50% or 99%?

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

I assume the balance does not show because the blockchain "states" are still unsynced. Is this correct?

Yes

How long will the sync take (already going on for one day)? At least, am I at 1%, 50% or 99%?

I had exactly your problem. Syncing stopped progress when I reached few hundreds last blocks. Finally I found that problem is my computer timing and I should solve that with enabling network time synchronization! You can follow this guide to enable it on Windows 10.

Answer 2

That is normal syncing process. There are 2 stages in the syncing process. Your node is at 2nd stage.

There is no issue on the process and nothing related with Windows.

You can find a detailed explanation of the 2 stages of syncing process here (answer by Greg Jeanmart): ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/82053/syncing-keeps-behind-the-blockchain