The fast and highly reliable method reported here uses two techniques to detect all types of defects, such as unsoldered leads, solder bridges, and misalignes leads in the minute solder joints of high density mounted devices. One technique uses external force applied by an air jet that vibrates or shifts unsoldered leads. The vibration and shift is detected as a change in the speckle pattern produced by laser illumination of the solder joints. The other technique uses fluorescence generated by short-wavelength laser illumination. The fluorescence from a printed circuit board produces a silhouette of the solder joint and this image is processed to detect defects. Experimental results show that this inspection method detects all kinds of defects accurately and with a very low false alarm rate.