I forgot to answer the first question directly as it is kind of implied. Sorry... As soon as I finished the instructions and rebooted for Arrandale graphics support it automatically detected the correct resolution of 1600x900... Also I upgraded Chrome to a newer version and the issues have gone away regarding being able to access Google services like Gmail. Therefore I have not had lockups anymore as I am not using Firefox.
Audio volume controls work fine. Brightness controls do nothing still.
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