The lost avionics shouldn't happen by design, but some guys had a workaround by tweaking the aircraft.cfg with unlimited electrics available.
Search the forums on this, if you like.

The sound thing was another workaround, using the CS 707 sound gauge which enables all sounds on the first load.
I'm with you there, awaiting 2.5 to fix quite some things, but in the meantime maybe it helps you.
Check this thread, reply #84. http://www.captainsim.org/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1264321545/75