What if a computer with Ethernet

I'm just revising for an exam on Networks and Data Communications, and there's one thing I don't get about CSMA/CD and Ethernet. It's supposed to be fairly stable, for instance if a computer drops out of the network, it's not a problem like it might be in a token ring network (I think).

But Ethernet works by all the other computers waiting for the currently transmitting computer to finish what it's doing, and then the others use CMSA/CD to determine who goes next. What if one computer malfunctioned and kept sending a continuous stream of data in an infinite loop? In fact, is there a standard time for pcs to transmit before they yield to others?

If there is something generating noise on the network continuously, the network will be broken for all systems on that network.

There are a couple of conditions that must be met:

1. If you are on a switched network, the "noise" must be in the form of an Ethernet packet. If it isn't a valid Ethernet packet, then the switch port receiving the noise will not forward it to any other port.
2. If you're on a truly shared media, the noise may be anything such as a 10b2 cable strung over a broken fluorescent light fixture.
3. If you're on a switched network, the packets must be addressed to either an address that isn't in use or to a broadcast address. The switch will "flood" the unknown address to all ports and only stop flooding if it gets a response.

A common example of this sort of failure mode is with broadcast storms.

One should also mention that CSMA/CD is not required in an age of where everything is switched. The switch makes the medium look like it isn't shared since it implements a point to point topology.