DecTalk Improvements-and-Issues in 5.9?

[Chime Hart]

Well, after reconfiguring hard-drives, I am now up on a 5.9.1   Looks like 
the volume, pitch, and rate drops may be gone, however, this version has 
an inflection instead of volume settings. I have the patch which was sent 
out a couple of weeks ago, but I have `never run a patch. I just renamed 
it to speakup-patch  and ran with a patch command, but it just sits there.
My largest problem is hardware related. If I do any typing or examining 
with numpad or any other kees, I get a 4second delay from the DecTalk. 
Seems like when we fixed this, it was an accident. Any1 have any 
suggestions please-and-thanks so much in advance
Chime