applying kernel patch

I am desperately trying to get the driverloader to work with my dell  
computer. The problem I have is that after awhile the connection  
drops/stops. I would like to chek if it is the kernel stack problem. So my  
question is if I'm going to patch the kernel with the patch utility where  
should I put the patch in relation to the source tree? And what command  
should I give?

br
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michael johnson