When the volume control is launched an error dialog is produced stating:

"An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for
gnome-volume-control. Some of your configuration settings may not work
properly."

When the detail button is selected, the first error, representative of the
rest states:

Bad key or directory name:
 "/apps/gnome-volume-control/OSS-MS_Sound_System_(CS4231)-1/pcm": `(' is an
invalid character in key/directory names

This is a new install from downloaded and validated CD's from redhat. The
installation went smoothly without any reported errors. After dispatching
the error dialog, the settings can be changed and have immediate effect so
the basic functionality is intact, only the settings can't be saved or
recovered.