Problem with PNY GTX295

My system:
Asus P5E3 Deluxe\Wi-Fi,
Intel Q9650
XFX GT8800 - 528mb
OCZ1600 – 1gb x 2
Asus Essence STX
WD150gb, SeaGate 750gb

Ultra X3 800wt – power supply

I got a new video card – PNY GTX295 for birthday, so I decided to upgrade.
New card needs two power extras – 6-pin and 8-pin, both 12 volts.
When I installed new card and tried restart PC, nothing happened. PC wasn’t responsive at all,
no POST’ing ot anything, except green light on the board. But I noticed short movement of fan in power supply, and that’s it. I tried resetting power cables - 6 & 8-pins, and noticed that to connect 8-pins you have to put more pressure, like push harder. But other than that, no other abnormalities were visible, and still no post’ing.

I tried to remove power extra cables from video card and suddenly computer returned to life – it started waking-up (but I immediately shut it down, because no extra power cables was connected to video card). My first guess was that power supply doesn’t provide enough power, so I decided to connect one 6-pin cable to video card, start PC and then connect another 8-pin cable. But when I tried this, I saw and heard sparks and cracks in video card input for 8-pin (small but visible and audible). The same happened when I switch extra power cables - started with 8-pin, and then after pressing “power” button connected 6-pins cable.

My questions are:

1) What I did wrong?

Did I fried $500 videocard?

2) Could be a faulty 8-pins cable?

3) May be this video card was broken from the beginning?

I’m kind of scared and upset. It was such a great gift from my wife, and most powerful card for today, and suddenly complete clusterfrack. So I put my old XFX Alpha-Dog GT8800 back to case and everything came to life again, nice and shiny and at least I can write on forums and search Web. But, geez – brand new 2 GB video card dead because of my ignorance? It’s killing me, and before I committ suicide, please share you experience.

Please tell me what I did wrong and what to do next. I really appreciate all you suggestions.

P.S. (sorry my mistakes – English is my second language)

how I can test videocard? is it in working condition or not?
I can order overnight delivery another videocard or power supply.
Is there any possibility that 8-pin cable was the cause of sparks?

I should be using PCI-E cable, but only now I found out that it was +12v - 8-pin cable.

This is where I made a mistake.
There wasn't any adapters or cables inside the box, which is strange, because they should put Y-power cables or adapters inside of box.

For now I have 6-pin to 8-pin PCI-E cables. Is it possible to use for second 8-pin input on card? Or I should order 8-pin to 8-pin cable?
On power supply I hve only one 8-pin output and three - 6-pin.

I do not want to experiment again, just want to know for sure. It's really stressful situation.

don't sure that I understand the question. I'm not so advanced technically.

damn! it's only 8" long - too short!

@ SGasan116: If I'm reading your posts correctly, you have a 6-pin to 8-pin PCI-E cable. This is fine to use, no problems.
Sounds like all you have done is mistake the 8-pin motherboard outlet on the PSU for an 8-pin PCI-E outlet, you're not the first and certainly will not be the last
Just connect one 6-to-6 pin cable and the 6-to-8-pin converter cable and all should be well.

selecting best answer give you 25 points towards apprentice

Oh my, don't want to miss out on those points