While it's just downloading blocks, it's connected to a ip address from a 'Running Bitcoin Nodes by Region (United States)' site.
connect=

It's the only way I know to prevent all the duplicate block errors?

So it seems if it doesn't use the block # from the connection;
'receive version message: version 70001, blocks=234100,'
and the default # is less than the current highest, then the progress bar isn't displayed.