I have also found that switching solvers can help the analysis to solve. I find that using the direct sparse option for relatively large structural jobs is usually quicker assuming it stays "in core" or in other words, there is sufficient RAM for the solution to use. I used to find for especially large jobs, if it was too big to run in core and effectively bombed out, the pcg itterative solver would work instead. However, these days with improvements to ansys and improvements to the size and speed of hard disks, it is less of an issue. To answer your question, I would expect the results should be approximately the same with either solver (there might be a little rounding).
I do also recall several years ago some analysis that was a particularly large model running on a remote solver where we had some problems during the solve. The solve used the distributed option, it had contact so was non-linear. As I recall, the model would occasionally not solve with distributed mode, however it was a while ago so may have been a bug that is now fixed.
You can also try changing the unit system, as I find that can help solve the model if any of the numbers are particualy big or small, it can cause issues.
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