Hey BA767336ER, morschtl, Mark

I'm not sure what causes the 767 to start cold & dark, in my FSX I get this 70% of my flights. Yes, blank MCP, no overhead switches on, etc. But I don't go nuts over it nor reload, I just like to make a normal start-up procedure and adjust the blue color of displays, fire up APU, align the IRS, etc and then you can again select whatever takeoff speed and after departure altitude, etc.

For the Master Autopilot and VNAV & LNAV to work the FMC must be configured correctly. If you get off the flight plan route too much LNAV will be on standby and you'll need to head the aircraft to the route line for the LNAV to capture, and VNAV ascent rate depends on your weight, Cost Index...

What else... for the approach you're right, descent and STAR arrivals are messed up, speed and altitudes for each fix must be manually put sometimes.
If you have trouble descending use this rule; take your altitude and your desired approach altitude and rest it, this difference multiply it by 3, that's your miles away for descent, then divide your GS by two or multiply it by 5, that's your rate of descent (in hundreds if you divide by 2) ft... or you can always follow the crappy ATC IFR instructions.

You must have a problem with your joystick if you trim with that after takeoff, try keyboard like morschtl.

I would recommend to look up some tutorials in Youtube, I'll learn to make them soon. Oh and by the way, even if angry think twice what you write or say, even in the web where you don't show who you are nor your name.