Abstract: A method of inspecting solder joints of a circuit card assembly with a laser inspection system having a laser adapted to be operated at a high power in watts to produce a laser beam for a selectable time duration for application to solder joints of a circuit card assembly and a detector system for detecting infra red emission from the heated solder joints to determine the solder joints integrity. For a given type of circuit card assembly and for a given type of solder joint, a laser beam time duration is selected and the laser is operated at a given high power level which is effective to result in the detection of a peak number of defective solder joints of the same type. The time duration of the laser beam employed in the process is that corresponding to the second peak of defective solder joints determined from prior testing.