Sort of looks like an HP 2524 is a badge engineered Cisco. The commands look like Cisco IOS and it even does CDP.
As far as your first problem is concerned it sound like the switch is saving the tftp info to its stored config file (start-config) and not reading it until after a reset.
See if you see a difference between
sh start
and
sh run
After the initial setup.
copy start run
will have the same effect as a boot if that is the case.
You might want to look at
sh boot
to see if it has anything funky set in the boot.
As for your second problem. In order for ssh to work you need an enable password and the command crypto key generate rsa and ssh has to be enabled. There is no enable password and no key when you first boot up so you won't be able to do ssh until after the config file has been received.
You can use a shell script to telnet back in and make any changes you need after the initial config (such as
crypto key generate rsa
copy start run
reload
etc)
If you prefer Windows, A program like Kiwi Cattools can do it for you and there are also some Perl programs which will do a good job talking to your switch.
Ron