Questions about AdafruitEZ-link

I dug out the EZ-LInk shield I bought few years ago, as I recall it never worked well.

Two questions.
First question: I stack it on an Uno, then use the USB cable to the Uno. A red LED on the shield blinks. I paired up with the Mac just fine, however then I upload a sketch, I seep getting the error:

avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding
avrdude: stk500_getsync() attempt 2 of 10: not in sync: resp=0x00
what is that?

Second question: I replaced the USB cord with a Arduino external power supplyly, the Uno boot up just fine but the shield does not start at all, no blinking LED doesn't show in my bluetooth preference. Why is that?

Thanks