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Be certain there is no error message when steemd.exe starts (no red/orange text). Also, my config.ini file was not being parsed, so it loaded the default one, which led to the same issue you are describing here.

Error parsing logging config from config file C:\Users... \config.ini, using default config

fwiw, It seems if i have more than 1 seed-node entry in the config.ini file, it fails to parse and loads the default one.

How long does it take you to go from the 1hps syncing / queuing to actual mining?

There was an error there and the 1 seed-node fixed that problem. Now it hangs at "ntp_delta_time updated to -27739us" and just sits there. Any idea what that is? Upvoted for fixing my first problem =)

OK, the "Error parsing config file...." is actually not an issue, in fact, you kinda need that error message, as it's best to have multiple seed nodes, and having more than 1 in the config file does trip that message. However, it can be safely ignored.
So what i did was add back in the seed nodes listed here, made sure my config file was correct (witness, miner and WIF keys correctly entered) and re-ran steemd after a replay. Took only a few seconds of 1hp until i was mining again.

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